The Super Soldier of Gremory
by ShinobiLeague13
Summary: John Freemont, the reclusive transfer student in Kuoh Academy. Holding many secrets that many would kill to keep behind locked doors, he goes about his life only for it to one day all change as he makes the decision to help Issei Hyoudou the night Raynare tries to kill him. OC. OC/Harem. Issei/Harem.
1. Chapter 1

The Super Soldier of Gremory

Chapter 1: New life, old song

Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD, but I do own the OC.

I look around, remembering the place that has haunted me for the last eight years, the place I woke up, the place I was born…the place I escaped. I don't remember much before I escaped, but I do believe that I was kept in some kind of coma while they did experiments on me, but I escaped and for the next eight years I ran, always looking over my shoulder, trying to find somebody who may be following me and leaving soon after not bothering to grab any of my things except the 9 mm that I picked up along the way.

I see all the medical equipment, the sedatives, and the younger me. The door opens and I see a woman in her twenties with dark hair and a stern face wearing a lab coat looking down at my younger self with soft eyes, looking like she regrets something before she turned and leaves. After she leaves I look down at my younger self just asking "What did they do to me?"

* * *

In a small apartment a sixteen year old boy with dark hair and sharp features wakes up to start his day. He barely yawns as he rarely ever feels tired and walks to the bathroom for his shower.

Letting the water wash over him, he feels the muscle, stiff from disuse, begin to loosen and relax and washes himself before getting out of the shower and gathering the clothes he will need for the day which consisted of a black blazer with white trims, black slacks and a blue undershirt and putting them on before getting ready to leave for school. He really hated going to school, but nothing said runaway more than a kid living alone in an apartment and supposedly skipping school. That would attract attention from adults, who would call the police and soon after the police the people who were after him would follow. He had no idea who the organization that was after him was, he just knew he could not go back, but they would always catch up eventually but he was having more luck in this town than he had in America, he had been in Kuoh for three months and there had been no sign of the organization, not even a preliminary search.

He did also owe this weird guy as well for giving him a scholarship to the academy in town as it was the only school in town and he would never be able to afford tuition without stealing some major merchandise and that would have had the organization on his scent in a heartbeat. Stopping at the door he grabbed a 9 mm and put in his book bag along with some of the special ammo he had learned to make over the years that he had been on the run.

Opening his door he looked back, looking at the Spartan living conditions, he didn't even have a TV, before turning his back on it and closing the door.

* * *

Arriving at Kuoh Academy like he did every day, only at different times to avoid setting a pattern where somebody could ambush him, he looked up at the primarily white western building facing the gates attached to a large wall that surrounded the school. The school was an impressive building in the town; easily one of the largest aside from the abandoned church near the edge of town, its size was to accommodate the large student body it now supported now that the School had been converted into a co-ed school, leaving the old school building near the back of the property for the private use of the famous Occult Research Club, run by the "Two Great Onee-sama's of Kuoh".

He had heard that that particular club as well as the Student Council both had some of the most popular people in the school, and that was good, let them hog the spotlight and he would sink unnoticed into the background away from the notice of those he was running from.

Well that was the plan, until some of the girls in the school thought that his "feral", their words not his, quality and his tendency to be a bit of a loner was attractive and he gained a bit of a following, not as big as Yuuto Kiba but a decent size all the same.

Walking into the building he turned to the right to go up the stairs, he found the appropriate room on the second floor and opened the door to his homeroom in which almost all of his class mates were already seated. The teacher looked over to him and said, "Ah, Freemont-san, I was just about to take role, if you would take your seat, please?"

"Yes, Sensei." The aforementioned Freemont replied respectfully to the teacher in a short response to the teacher's request. Japanese had not been that hard for him to learn, for some reason he picked up the language rather quickly but there were still instances where he had to take a pause to interpret what was said. He went to his seat in the middle of the classroom and caught sight of the three boys that the female population of the school had taken to calling the perverted trio.

This group, obviously, consisted of three students: The first one was Matsuda, a tall boy with a shaved head wearing the Kuoh academy uniform; he used to be a jock on one of the academy's sports teams the previous year but quit saying something about dedicating his full attention to the perverted arts or something along those lines. He was also a self proclaimed lolicon and had earned the nick names "Perverted baldy" or "The Sexual Harassment Paparazzi".

The second member of the group was Motohama, a seemingly unassuming kid wearing the Kuoh uniform, with dark hair and thick glasses, but had the ability to measure a woman's three sizes with just a look, earning him the nickname "Perverted Glasses".

The third and final member of the group had no fancy nick name like the previous two but was the apparent leader of the ragtag group of perverts. He had plain brown hair and golden eyesand wore the academy uniform's blazer open revealing a red shirt. He had no special abilities or talents to offer to the group like the two previous members but from the rumors he heard around the school he had more lust than the other two combined. Aside from his massive perversion, he was the most bearable of the group considering that, unlike the other two, he didn't rape the women of the school with just his eyes.

He heard their giggling that he compared to children who had managed to nab a cookie from the cookie jar and got away with it. As he passed them, he reached out without looking and grabbed the magazine that they were reading and tossed it to the teacher without glimpsing at the magazine. "Here, sensei. Compliments of the Perverted Trio." He said without turning around.

The KI in the room shot through the roof and it was all directed at the perverts for bring what he assumed to be a dirty magazine to class. Now he would not call himself a sadist but there was something satisfying about hearing the three boys whimper in fear.

He finally got to his seat and sat down watching as the three boys looked around in fear at every female in the room who sent glares that threatened never ending pain and suffering for them.

Chuckling to himself, he looked around the class as the teacher finally got to roll call, thinking to himself _'Just another day.'_

* * *

It was lunch time and he had just left the class in order to get some food for lunch, managing to get some ramen before heading out to sit under a tree to eat. He managed to get some of the spicy ramen that he liked to get before the cafeteria ran out, they didn't order a lot as it was not the most popular item but there were enough people who ordered it so it would run out quickly on a good day.

While he was enjoying the ramen he caught sight of the perverts he had busted earlier on the slope that surrounded the sports field standing in formation and screaming to the sky about having harems or something before they went down looking like they were about to cry before looking in another direction looking pissed. Looking over at what they staring at, he saw that they were glaring at Yuuto Kiba, the "Prince" of Kuoh. Like every other guy in the school he wore the academy uniform but managed to somehow look impeccable and with no mistakes with his uniform, he had golden blonde hair and an effeminate face with a beauty mark under his left eye.

He had met Kiba once or twice in the halls and he seemed like a nice guy, of course his looks and overall nice guy attitude attracted the majority of the female body, which was why the perverts hated him, to them he was their only obstacle to gaining at least some preferable contact with the opposite gender outside the vicious beatings they got from the kendo, track and field, softball…Pretty much any female sports team that caught them peeking on them. They were wrong, there was a whole legion of problems they had to get past before any female willingly let them within ten feet of them let alone touch them, but he did not try to understand the minds of those perverts.

Oh, they're gone now. He was about to go back to eating before he heard a small meow beside him. Looking down, he saw an adorable white kitten staring up at him with green eyes.

He stared at the kitten for a few seconds before he placed his nearly empty bowl on the ground and reached out to the small feline. "Hey there little guy, where'd you come from?" he said in english. The kitten responded with another small meow and rubbing its head into the boys hand, purring all the while. "You know, I don't think I've seen you around here before. Did you perhaps follow your owner to school?" Another meow and he swore he saw that cat nod. "Well I'm almost done here, do you want me to help you find your owner?" Now some people would call having a conversation with a cat a sign that they're going crazy, but to him he had never really had that much interaction with many living things so he really did not know what to expect from other people and creatures.

He got up and stuck his hand out, to which the cat immediately used to jump up onto his shoulder before he walked to a trashcan and throwing away the disposable bowl and walked towards the school trying to find the kitten's owner, they would probably be worried if they got home and found the little guy missing. As he looked he finally found where the perverted trio had run off to, they were looking into the girls changing room. He made a small detour to write something on a piece of paper and slipped it under the door of the changing room before walking away, he didn't get very far before hearing the screams of agony from the perverts.

He spent the rest of lunch break looking for the cat's owner and seemingly couldn't find them. It was almost time to go back to class and he would have to leave the kitten and go back to class.

"…Shiro." Said a monotone voice behind him.

He turned around and saw a petite young first year with white hair wearing the school's female uniform, a crimson and black skirt, white blouse and a black corset, she did not wear the shoulder cape like most of the girls in the school did, standing there staring at him or more accurately the cat on his shoulder.

He looked at the cat right before it jumped off his shoulder and into the girl's arms. She looked at the cat before looking at him. "So, he's your cat?" He cringed at the stupid question, of course it was he cat, it just jumped into her arms!

Instead of saying something demeaning the girl responded with a curt nod.

"Sorry, he just wandered up to me while I was finishing lunch and I decided to try and find his owner since I'm sure you would have been worried if you got home and couldn't find him." He explained to the girl.

"…Yes…Very worried." She told him showing that she was not a girl of many words. He turned around to leave the girl to her business before he heard her say, "…Koneko."

Looking back at her with a confused look she clarified what she meant. "My name…Koneko Toujou."

"Oh, sorry, well my name is John Freemont, Nice to meet you Toujou-san. I guess I'll see you around." He took her silence as an affirmative and left as did she.

When he was on his way to his next class he suddenly realized something. "Wait, I spoke to her in English and she understood me." He thought the students didn't learn to speak English until later in the semester.

* * *

In the old school building a girl who looked to be about seventeen with red hair and generous…very generous curves, stared down at the three boys who were laid out near her headquarters after the brutal thrashing from the kendo club they had received. While the bald one and the one wearing glasses would have bolted if they had noticed that the girls had become alerted to their presence, leaving their other friend to burn, the girls had caught them off guard when they had simply gotten dressed and walked around them without them ever noticing as they were too busy talking about the bodies of the girls they had just peeped on, while their friend cried at his inability to get a good look in. However the one she paid closer attention to was the one with brown hair who was laid out who seemed to have even worse injuries from the club.

Hearing the door open she turned around expecting to see Akeno but was instead surprised to see Koneko coming in holding her cat, Shiro. Noticing that she had the president's attention she simply stated, "…Bringing Shiro for safe keeping."

Confused by the statement, the busty redhead asked, "Was he in the school?"

Instead of answering with words, she nodded.

"Why was he out? He normally stays with the others." She said to the shorter girl.

"…I don't know Buchou, I found him riding on the shoulder of a student who was looking for me." Koneko told the president of the ORC.

"You specifically or just Shiro's owner?" The redhead asked her club member

"…Owner." Was all Koneko said.

"What was this student's name?" The red haired girl asked her young friend.

"John…Freemont."

"Hmmm, well leave Shiro here, we'll put him with the others shortly." She told Koneko who complied by putting Shiro on the ground and petting him once before leaving the room. Once Koneko was gone, Shiro walked over to the couch and jumped up on it, laying down to take a nap in the spot where Koneko normally sat.

Turning back to the window she called out, "Akeno." And was answered by the appearance of another girl wearing the Kuoh Academy girls uniform, shoulder cape included, with long dark hair put into a long ponytail held back by an orange ribbon and a slightly larger bust than the redhead's admittedly large bust.

"Yes Rias?" She inquired to the now revealed Rias who had called her.

"What can you tell me about a student named John Freemont?" Rias asked Akeno.

Putting a hand to her cheek she said, "Oh, John-kun!" Rias quirked an eyebrow at the affectionate way she said the boys name. "Well, he is a transfer student here on a scholarship for students who are living alone."

"Wait isn't that the scholarship my brother set up when we bought the school?" Rias asked her Vice President.

"Yes, he started three months ago. His grades are somewhere near the top of the class, and he is rather popular among the females of the academy for his "feral" quality, but tends to keep to himself unless absolutely necessary, and always seems to come into school at random times, ranging from obscenely early to borderline late with no pattern, it's always completely random. He is also rather athletic as he almost broke the record for the fastest time in the 100 meter dash that is currently held by Kiba-kun" Akeno told her about the student in question.

That was a shock to Rias as Yuuto was one of the fastest members of the club and the school and for someone who was a human to be capable of something like that was astounding. "Is there anything else about him that I should know?" Rias asked about Freemont.

"Well he does seem to have a habit of preying on the Perverted Trio?" She admitted to her president.

"How so? Is he a bully?" She asked, she didn't like bullies, especially ones that targeted her peerage.

"No no, not at all. He just seems to be the one who stumbles on them the most when they're doing something like reading naughty magazines in class or peeping on the girls changing room. Ooh the looks they have when all the girls are glaring at them or are about to beat them." She said ending in an almost euphoric state at the thought of the Perverted Trio when they are caught.

"Akeno, your S-mode is coming out." Rias told the girl before steering the conversation back on track. "Are you sure he is human though?"

Shifting into a lighthearted, but somehow serious stance, she answered the question, "Positive, why? Are you going to…"

"Maybe, but nothing is for certain. I guess we'll just have to keep an eye on him then." Rias concluded. "You may go now."

"As you wish, Rias." Akeno said before disappearing through the door and into another room.

Left alone, Rias looked the window at the three boys laid out on the ground before saying, "Looks like I may have another potential member." Turning away from the window she walked out of the room, showing a Chess set with crimson pieces missing the king, queen, a knight, a bishop, and a rook.

* * *

On Sunday, John got out of bed and did his normal routine of taking a shower and getting dressed and headed out to do what he did every weekend, which was going out and getting groceries. When he arrived at a random store like he did every Sunday, he went to the aisle where they kept the nonperishable foods and stocked up on things like beef stew and chicken, before he grabbed a few cuts of meat from the meat aisle before heading to the produce section to get some fruits and vegetables, everything need for a teenager as allowed by the allowance he gained from the scholarship he was under.

He decided to grab a treat, so he went to the sweets section of the store to find some candy. When he arrived at the aisle he was surprised to see the white haired girl from school, Koneko Toujou.

Walking over to her he greeted her, "Toujou-san, fancy meeting _you here_." He greeted her while switching from English to Japanese to see if she understood what he said.

Looking at the one who had greeted her, Koneko nodded to the boy and nodded before saying in an emotionless voice, "Freemont-san… call me Koneko."

"Oh uh sure, Koneko-san, and you can call me John." he responded to her request and realized that she hadn't even noticed him switching languages mid-sentence, either that or she had not noticed it. "Well are you here for sweets as well?"

The girl nodded before pointing to the side where he saw a one of the carrier bags like he had, only unlike his that carried things he would need to eat healthy for a week, it was filled exclusively with candy of all varieties from chocolate bars to lollipops.

"…Wow, you really like candy, don't you?" He replied after seeing the sight.

"…Yes" She said simply before turning back to the shelf to look for more sweets for her basket. Looking down at the money he had, he took out a one thousand yen note and handed it to her.

She took the money and looked at him like she was saying why? "It's not much but it should help." He told her with a smile before he turned away.

Why did he do something like that? For all he knew she could have been another member of the organization that was after him and if she wasn't a member of that group then she could possibly become a target, but something about her drew him in, like on some level she might just understand a person like him, but that was impossible, there was no way a girl like her could have gone through something like he did.

"Thank you…" He heard from the girl who snapped him out of his thoughts, with him turning back to her, she continued, "For this… and for taking care of Shiro and bringing him to me."

Smiling a little at her, he just said, "It was no trouble and have a nice day." Before he turned around and went to the check out and paid for his groceries.

Koneko who was still watching him until he left, looked down at the note with a ghost of a smile on her face.

Outside the store John was handed a piece of paper with a design on it that looked like a magic circle by a woman wearing something that looked like an orange and black Halloween costume. He put the slip into his pocket and moved on, never knowing the significance of what he had just done.

* * *

After he got out of the store he went home, on the way he saw Issei of the Perverted trio on what seemed to be a date with Issei not acting like a total pervert, to put away his groceries and spent the rest of the day working out, running, lifting weights that kind of stuff, before taking another shower and then a nap afterwards.

After he woke up he decided that it would be nice to take a walk around the park a couple blocks away. Since it was sunset there wouldn't be anybody around except for the odd couple.

When he got within sight of the fountain at the park he found it strange that he had seen nobody in the park for the last ten minutes as Sunday was a bit of a date night for multiple couples, but so far there had been no one, except for Issei and the girl who he was with earlier, strange.

Since the girl had her face near his ear and Issei's face had a permanent blush, John only assumed that she was whispering sweet nothings into his ear.

Wait, why did she just smile twistedly, and why did Issei pale just a bit? The girl who had long brown hair and was wearing a green sundress backed away. Suddenly John moved to the side to get out of sight as the girl spoke again, still with that twisted smile. "I said, 'Would you die for me?'."

Okay this was starting to get weird it was almost like she was planning to murder the kid, it all lined up, an empty park all alone with her target where nobody would interfere. Suddenly the girl started to glow and when John saw her after she stopped glowing his jaw dropped. No longer was there a young pretty girl in a sundress, but a mature and seductive woman wearing what basically amounted to leather belts that exposed ninety-seven percent of her body and her brown hair had turned black and she had pitch black wings sprout from her back.

What the hell was going on? How had she changed her appearance and grown wings? Was she some kind of angel?

Looking to Issei to see his reaction, he was…not really surprised to see the boy with some happy look on his face and lecherous thoughts showing in his eyes. Really? The guy was about to be killed and he has time to be a pervert instead of running like any sensible person would? The woman somehow, much to John's shock, formed some kind of weapon out of pure energy and looked like she was about to throw it at Issei.

"I've had enough of this!" He snarled pulling out his gun and loading some of his special ammo into the handle. Cocking the gun he took aim at the woman who was about to murder the high school student.

* * *

Fallen Angel Raynare was about to throw her light spear at her target that was believed to hold a powerful Sacred Gear that could make him a threat. Looking at the pervert she let out a dark chuckle and said, "Don't blame me for this misfortune; you should blame God who put that Sacred Gear inside of you." She could see the confused and scared look on the boys face as he tried to figure out what she was talking about.

Too bad he would die in ignorance.

As she was about to throw the spear, she heard a loud crack and before she could react, something hit her and let out a small but powerful explosion that turned her body away from her target and heard two more cracks. She felt two more explosions and pain engulf her back and wings as she fell to the ground her light spear dissipating.

After taking his shots, John ran out as fast as he could and grabbed Issei and dragged him along, looking behind him as they ran he saw the woman get up, with nothing but small burns on her arm and back. Those explosions would have killed anyone else or at the very least internal hemorrhaging, but all they did to the woman was make her pissed, an emotion that was clearly evident on her face before she shot into the sky.

"Why are you here?" John heard Issei demand as they continued to run from the flying lady.

"As of right now, I'm saving your ass!" John replied to the boys question before he saw a glint of light and pushed Issei to the left, while he dove to the right and rolled. When he got back up he saw a pink lance of light sticking out of the ground where he and Issei had been not even seconds ago. Looking up to the woman who was looking down at him with a sneer on her face, he realized that it was harder to see her than before when she had been near the ground.

He cursed in his head when he realized just how fucked he was in this situation, the sun was setting and it would be dark soon, and with her wings and hair she would blend in perfectly with the night, and she was in her element. Looking at the setting sun, he knew that he had only minutes to beat this angel woman seeing her forming another lance, he raised his gun and fired off three more of his explosive rounds and hit her bringing her back down to the ground, buying him a couple of seconds.

"Issei, run into the woods and stay and keep running, she can't follow you in the trees!" He yelled out to the brown haired boy who was recovering from the shove earlier.

"But what about you?" He yelled back to John in worry since this guy who normally busted him and his friends at school was throwing himself into danger on his behalf.

John cursed when he saw the woman recovering and frantically said, "It doesn't matter just go! She wants you and if you get away then that ruins whatever she had planned! Now Go!" John yelled at the boy, who, with some hesitance ran away through the woods.

The woman who was fully recovered found her target running away, turned to the one who had assisted in his escape, snarling she told him, "You're going to pay for that!"

Seeing the woman looking at him in fury, he responded by giving her a blank look and saying, "Probably." And raised his gun to fire off two more rounds which she quickly moved out of the way of, leaving them to explode against some saplings harmlessly, before taking flight and launching a multitude of light spears towards him.

Taking his own advice he dived towards the trees where the spears caught in the branches and trunks protecting him. Moving through the trees at a quick pace he circled around the flying woman who was still launching the spear like objects into where he had gone thinking that he was still there. He aimed his gun towards the woman and fired a single round, leaving him with just one left in the magazine, which hit one of her wings, causing her to let out a cry as she fell.

Taking the magazine out of his gun, he switched it with another one of his special bullets; these ones weren't lethal but would help him later. Quickly firing at the downed woman, the bullets burst on impact spreading a small amount of liquid on her from each one that hit.

Raynare was getting more pissed off by the minute, not only had this child managed to down her multiple times, he had crippled one of her wings, it wasn't permanent but she wouldn't be able to fly for a few days and had allowed her target to get away.

Looking at the places where the bullets burst she laughed as none of them even left a mark. As an angel, even a fallen one, her kind were blessed with denser skin that would protect them from minor bruising like in the places where the bullets burst, even the explosions from the bullets he had fired had only stung where a mere human would be put into intensive care if even one of the bullets hit them.

John had run out of bullets while the woman was recovering and with the little time he had left he loaded another magazine of the same rounds and continued to fire but stopped when she started laughing.

She sneered at him with that look of arrogance she had when she had been about to impale Issei, sure he didn't necessarily like the kid but he didn't deserve to die, before she said in a haughty tone, "You really think those paint balls are going to hurt me?"

"That's not the point." He told her simply in reply to her taunt as he kept his gun trained on her. Never put your gun down in a fight had been one of the many lessons he learned.

"Then what pray tell is the point?" she said, not really caring about his response.

"To make sure he gets away from here." He told her as he was keeping her attention on him.

"You really think you saved him? You only delayed the inevitable! I found him once and I will find him again, I'll even kill his family and make him watch as his parents look to him and ask him 'Why didn't you just die?'!" She yelled at him trying to make him falter just a bit to strike him down.

Instead, his eyes grew colder as he simply said, "I never said either of us were leaving here alive."

She looked at him as he had a cold look of determination, and saw it, a resolve that would allow him to die here to protect her target. She manifested her light spear and got ready to attack the lowly human that dared injure her. "Then this park will be your grave!" She charged for him and threw the spear.

He dodged to the right and then rolled to avoid two more spears and before she created another, he got back to his feet and moved forward, grabbing her arm and tossing her over his shoulder, sending her flying where she corrected herself while he started firing more rounds, only a couple had hit their mark before she started to move faster than he could keep track of in order to hit her.

Before long he ran out of bullets and dispensed the magazine, he had enough hits on her to enact the final part of the plan, putting the magazine with one exploding round left he cocked the gun and came around the tree to fire…only to receive a spear to the gut.

The woman had seen her chance while he had been reloading, she had caught onto his pattern of using the trees for cover while he reloaded and knew that if she wanted to kill him, she had to do it then.

John, for his part, felt shock and then the pain of having a spear shoved into his gut, going through one of his kidneys, it didn't matter what he or anybody did now as he was a dead man. Suddenly the spear vanished and he backed away a couple of steps before his legs could not support his weight and crashed down against the trunk of a tree.

The woman looked down at the human as his breathing became labored as his body came closer to death with a cruel smirk. Walking forward she summoned another spear, this one would go through his heart. Raising her spear she was about to bring it down before she was hit on the back with something hard that made a ringing sound.

She tumbled forward and turned around to see Issei Hyoudou holding some kind of pipe getting ready to swing again only to receive a spear to his chest for his trouble.

"So you came back to save him? How noble of you, but your efforts are wasted, he would have died anyway." She said, all she got in response was a glare of loathing from the boy whose life she had ended. "Now, now sweetie I did say to blame God for your misfortune, as he put that Sacred gear inside you." She laughed as the dying boy continued to glare. "Well now looks like I've got to go-"

"Hey bitch…" a weak voice said, she turned around to de the other boy with his gun pointed at her, eyes unfocused and blood coming out of his mouth as he continued. "I…never said either of us was getting out alive."

Suddenly she smelt something, something that burned her nose and looked down to see that the liquid that came out hadn't been water or anything she had thought before.

It was _Kerosene_!

It all happened in slow motion.

He pulled the trigger and the gun shot the bullet.

She tried to move out of the way but it was too late.

The bullet flew through the air and reached her, exploding on contact and causing the kerosene to catch, turning the fallen angel into a living bonfire as she flew away, screaming, trying to put herself out.

Dropping his arm, the gun clattered on the ground as his life flashed before his eyes. Wow his life really sucked, always on the move, never staying long enough to make any friends or make a life. Looking over his shoulder waiting for the Organization to inevitably rear its head and disrupting any life he had managed to make for himself.

The funny thing was that he thought that maybe, just maybe he might have had a future in this town. To make friends this time around, he had never had friends, any skills he had had been learned by himself. If he could have lived past this night then maybe he would have had the chance, for some reason a white haired girl made her way into his thoughts. Koneko was her name. Would she have been his friend? He would never know.

A part of him wanted to just lay down and die, but another part was screaming at the unfairness of how this life was, he listened to that part wanting to scream "I want to live?" to the sky, but he couldn't.

Simultaneously the pieces of paper in his and Issei's pockets glowed crimson before a large circle appeared on the ground with a symbol in the center. When the light cleared the three figures of Rias, Akeno and Koneko appeared looking at the two dying boys on the ground. Looking all around the area, she was able to see the damage from what had obviously been light spears and also black feathers that littered the ground with the smell of something burning lingering in the air.

"Well it seems someone put up a rather nasty fight against the fallen one." Rias said to no one in particular as she surveyed the damage done. There had been two high level summons that had been brought to her attention, one she had expected as her familiar had handed the circle to one but the other came as a surprise as sitting against a tree with a hole in his stomach was the student who had caught her attention along with Issei, John Freemont, the "Lone Wolf" of Kuoh Academy.

Near his hand was a gun on the ground which surprised her, she had never had any information that he even owned one, in fact there had not been a lot of information on him at all.

Akeno beside her spoke up, "Well looking at the situation I could probably guess what their wishes were." She said without the good natured tone that she usually had when talking to the president, "Not to mention that if John-kun was capable of removing a few feathers from a fallen as a human, he could make a good addition along with Issei-kun."

"Yes, you may be right." Rias replied before looking at Koneko. Koneko was staring at the body of John Freemont with a blank stare. Not many could tell when she was feeling any particular emotion, but Rias had been around her for years and had learned some signs that she was feeling something like right now she could tell that Koneko was angry and sad for the death of the transfer student who rarely, if ever, interacted with others at school.

Making a decision she told Koneko to move John's body next to Issei's. When that was done, she pulled out nine chess pieces, more specifically eight pawns and a rook.

She began the incantation that would change the two's lives forever. "In the name of Rias Gremory, of the House of Gremory of the seventy-two pillars I command you to rise…"

**And that is the end of chapter 1.**

**Tell me what you thought of the fight and what you thought of the Character John Freemont. The reason I ask is that that specific character is one that I took from the books that I was writing since highschool and put into the story.**

**This will be a harem With Issei having Rias, Asia, Irina and many others.**

**For John it will be only a few: Akeno, Koneko, Kuroka, Xenovia, Yubelluna, and Grayfia. Maybe more but not likely.**

**I know this is another story but I'm stuck on the others and this idea has been rattling in my brain for weeks and I only just managed to write it in the past four days. Also the details of the fight that I mentioned that were never really part of the Canon of Highschool DxD. I told this chapter from a human perspective as the main colorings for Raynare in the Anime was black and because human senses are not as sharp as a Devils, I made it to where her tendency to wear dark colors was an advantage for Raynare in the fight. Also the thing about denser skin, well I assumed that th supernatural beings are a lot tougher than humans to break so I made it to where Raynare's arrogance would reveal their much tougher physique if only to the audience as a way to explain he quick recovery from the explosive rounds. Rest assured though, this is not the last we will see of Raynare.**


	2. Chapter 2: Learning the Ropes

The Super Soldier of Gremory

Chapter 2: Devils, Fallen Angels, and Poisoning, Oh my!

Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD but I do own the OC

_The first thing I actually remember is waking up._

_Confusion and fear were the things that I felt and the thoughts of, _'Where am I? And why am I here?' _going through my mind. I heard a shrill beeping and felt pain in my arm so I reached and pulled something out. The beeping turned into a continuous whine that was louder, I hid behind the bed not knowing why, until the door opened and a woman in a blue-green shirt and baggy pants with strange patterns walked in, spotting the empty bed._

_She looked like she was about to call out to somebody so I jumped out and charged her as fast as I could. When I grabbed her, I slammed her head to the wall and she fell to the ground._

_Dragging her to the bed, I set her in my previous spot and took the thing I had taken from my arm and stuck it into hers, starting the beeping once more. I covered the woman up and made my way to the door. Looking into where the woman had come from, I found the door was at the end of a hallway and moved._

_I made it to some cart before something told me to hide there. I didn't question what it said and hid there until I heard clicking and someone speaking._

"…_are you sure it's a good idea to terminate seven?" Was what I heard first._

* * *

Coming into consciousness, John bolted up raising his gun looking for anything that was a threat to him.

All at once the memories of the previous night hit him and he raised his hand to where he was sure that woman's spear had struck him in the gut, only to find nothing, not even finding a scar where the spear had been. How he was even alive was what he wanted to know. He had been stabbed through the kidney, even if he had had the best surgeons around him at the time, there was no way he would have survived.

He put the gun down on the bedside table as that was the first clue that he was put here by somebody. He never slept with his gun under his pillow; he had stopped that particular habit after he had to move because neighbors in the apartment next to his became worried because of hearing gunshots almost every morning.

Looking at the gun on the table, he picked it back up and dispensed the magazine to check the bullets. There was his second clue, someone had reloaded his gun with his special ammo, he never had it loaded in the apartment, but when he did sometimes he only loaded it with regular ammo, none of his special ones.

Somebody had gone to a lot of trouble to make him think last night was some kind of a dream, but their attempts cost them as they got his patterns all wrong. Getting out of the bed, he seemed to feel…groggy. That wasn't right, he was never tired in the mornings and he was always wide awake, but now…

Putting aside his sluggish state, he got up and took his shower and got ready for school. He would have to keep an eye out as the ones who placed him in his home were bound to be watching, he would have to make sure to appear ignorant.

* * *

He arrived at the school and found Issei looking at his phone with a confused face. He heard the footsteps and looked to find John, and apparently remembering last night as well made his way to John to see if he remembered as well.

When Issei reached him, he opened his mouth but John cut him off. "Yes, I remember it, but we need to act like it was all a dream." He told Issei in a blank tone.

"But why? And why can't Matsuda and Motohama remember Yuuma-chan?" Issei questioned the guy who tried to save him.

"Because, the people who did whatever they did went to a lot of trouble to make sure that we thought it was all a dream, and I don't know who Yuuma is, but I assume that she is the woman who you were on a date with yesterday." John told the confused boy.

The boy looked at him and nodded, "Yes she was. I introduced her to Matsuda and Motohama. They have no reason to not remember, the shock of me having a girlfriend should have been branded on their memories." Issei explained his second question to John and showed John his phone, "And see here? Her number should be on here but it's just gone!"

John frowned, his friends didn't remember a girl that Issei had introduced to them, and the girl's number was gone from Issei's contacts, "Listen, go about your day like you normally would. The people who did this could be watching right now, so go to your friends tell them that it was just a dream or whatever your, sick, pervert friends will think of it and don't mention it again." He ordered the pervert and walked past him and paused, "Oh, and thanks for coming back, it was brave, but foolish. I'll get back to you when I figure out what's going on."

He moved to continue on his way to school, but stopped when he heard Issei ask, "What happened to us?"

He smirked and without turning around, he said with absolute certainty, "We died." before walking towards the school gate.

* * *

In their class, John kept an eye on everyone.

He wasn't sure what was going on, but it definitely was not normal, the fact that he had fought and been killed by some kind of angel that could create energy spears with just her hand was the first indication and the fact that he woke up that morning with no wound despite the fact that he had taken a lethal shot to his stomach was another.

Class had ended and everyone was exiting the room, he didn't, he stayed behind to see if there were any stragglers who were trying to keep an eye on him and didn't see. When there was no one else left he got out and decided to forgo lunch in order to keep an eye on Issei. If they weren't monitoring him, then maybe they were keeping an eye on the pervert.

Sitting by a tree facing in the direction where he knew Issei to be. It wasn't that hard to find him as Issei had taken what he said to heart and was acting like his usual perverted self but John could see how forced he was acting. Looking around he caught Kiba walking on the other side surrounded by fangirls who were trying to invite him to go with them to do something. He refused, like he always did, claiming to have club activities.

Then he looked at Issei.

It wasn't some casual once over that a lot of people did to be sure of where they were. No, he looked right at Issei. That didn't mean that he had something to do with what happened to both him and Issei, but it made him someone to keep an eye on and he could work with that.

"…John-senpai." He heard a monotone voice to his left. He looked up to see Koneko Toujou looking down at him holding a box wrapped in cloth.

Smiling at the petite girl, he waved to her, "Hello Koneko-san. Have you had a nice day?" He asked her wanting to be polite to the girl whose cat he had returned.

She nodded to him as an affirmative to his question, "Yes, a very nice day."

"So what did you do after I ran into you into the store yesterday?" He asked her as he saw no reason not to make conversation with the girl. Watching out for somebody really got boring when you had nothing to do after all, and he rather liked Koneko. He waved his hand to the ground beside him, letting her know it was ok to sit with him.

"I went home, and then met with Buchou for club activities." She said to him while sitting down and then unwrapped the box, before she looked over to him and noting that he had nothing to eat with him.

"Oh, what were you and your club doing?" John asked her as she opened the box, revealing lots of homemade sweets.

"Bird watching." She answered him simply.

Taking his eyes off Kiba who walked away from the area, he paid his full attention as he asked a question of her. "Hey, Koneko-san?" She turned to him with a blank stare as she ate her chocolates. "Why do you hesitate less when you talk to me? I've seen you talk to people around the school, but you only give one or two word answers after hesitating for a moment."

She looked at him for a second and took a bite of an unidentified sweet and answered his question, "You don't treat me like a toy, and you didn't act familiar with me or linger when you first met me."

He gave her a look when she said that. "Huh?" was his eloquent reply.

"People treat me like I'm a doll a lot around the school and even took to calling me the mascot because they think I'm adorable." She explained her answers to the boy, "Did you not know?" She asked him, when she saw his look of realization.

"Koneko-san, I don't know if you know this but I have a title around here as well. They call me the "Lone Wolf" in the academy because I don't really interact with people and I really don't pay attention to most social circles. You are the first person that I really have ever had actively talk to me during lunchtime, because I always eat alone." He told her of his own status in the school. She must really hate being referred to as a mascot though if she found him more comfortable to be around because he didn't treat her like a life size doll.

"I've heard. You also have a reputation for outing the Three Perverteers more than anybody else in the academy." She told him, but what she called the Perverted Trio caught his attention.

"That a new nickname for those three?" He asked.

"Yes, I want to see how fast it catches on." She told to him and explaining her reason. Suddenly a vision passed before his eyes that had him turn to her.

"Please don't. They might try to do some all for one and one for all pose using rolled up porn magazines for swords." He told her, while explaining why her idea might not be a good one.

She seemed to think about that before nodding, "I didn't think of that. They just might do it anyway one day."

"Yeah, it seems like something they would do." He said with a chuckle and noticed that the girl had a ghost of a smile. He noticed her reaching into one of her skirt pockets and pulled out a pink and purple box, and handing it to him.

He gave her a questioning look and she responded with, "They're an American candy. I thought you might want some since you are from America and Japan does not really have a lot of American things."

Reaching out and taking the candy, he saw cartoon versions of the separate flavors of the candy with the word Nerds written across both sides of the box. He started to laugh, "Nerds! I don't think I've had one of these in years." He continued to laugh.

When the girl was about to say something the bell rang, signaling the end of lunch. "Well we better get to class." He said to the girl.

"Yes, see you soon." She replied, packing her lunch box before getting up and walking away.

Looking one last time, towards Issei, he narrowed his eyes when he noticed Kiba looking at not only Issei, but him as well.

Turning away, he started to mutter, "Once is happenstance, twice is coincidence, three times is enemy movement. Hope that you don't make that third move, whoever you are."

* * *

Rias was sitting at her desk doing some paperwork for the management of her territory. Since the previous night she had reported that there was evidence of the Fallen in her territory to her brother and the elders, and had been told to run damage control and to not start a war. As she was filling it out Akeno laid down a cup of tea for her

Right now, she was filling out the forms for permission to terminate the fallen should they become a threat to her peerage or any human in her territory as they had already killed two and were bound to do so again. Sipping her tea she began to think of those the Fallen one had killed. One of the humans had been Issei Hyoudou, a boy who had lived in Kuoh all his life and started attending the school the previous year. The other was John Freemont. He was infinitely more complicated than Issei who had lived in Kuoh since he was born, John had no information, and she meant none; no previous address, no registered parents or guardians, not even a fucking birth certificate. It was like he had literally fallen out of the sky and her brother had given this guy a scholarship.

The only real information that she could find was that the gun he had with him had been reported stolen five years ago in St. Louis, Missouri, which meant he either stole it himself or brought it out of a pawn shop and she was leaning towards the latter. John Freemont simply did not exist, officially or otherwise.

The door opened, drawing Rias' attention towards the person who just came in, who was revealed to be Kiba, "Ah, Rias. I've been keeping an eye on Hyoudou-san like you asked and he seems to be acting normally, like the whole experience was all a dream.

She frowned at that, she knew for a fact that anyone who had a dream about them dying would be worried. She had wanted the two to have one more day of normality but the fact that the Fallen Angel that had killed him and Freemont was wiped from the memories of every person that he knew and that her contact information had mysteriously disappeared from his phone should have told him that what had happened could not have been normal.

"What about Freemont-san?" She asked looking for information on the other person who had been killed by the fallen angel. She knew there was something off about him, the disturbing lack of information aside, the fact that he had been able to injure a fallen angel was something that called anyone's attention, which was why she had sent out Koneko earlier to make sure he was completely human.

"John-senpai was human." The girl said coming through the open door.

"You are certain of that? There's not even a little bit of supernatural blood running through his veins?" Rias asked the girl who she was sure would be able to tell whether the boy was human or not before his resurrection.

"Absolutely, Buchou. There are no scents that are connected to his blood that would indicate that he has any youkai blood or family members." Koneko told her leader of her findings.

Rias sighed at the complete lack of any information to be found on John Freemont. "Well this isn't as much information as I would have liked to have on Freemont-san. The only information that I have been able to find is that the gun he had last night was stolen five years ago in America and that's all. There's nothing else!" She finished in a half shout out of frustration.

Yuuto had a look on his face as if he was thinking of something that may help in their hunt for more information. "Maybe…he's hiding from something." He said to his distraught president.

"What do you mean?" Rias asked hoping this might shine a light on John.

"Well you said there's no information on him, right?" Yuuto asked, to which he got a nod from his president.

"Yes, there's no previous address or birth certificate that indicates that he even existed in the first place." She told him confirming what he had asked her.

"There is no paper trail of any kind to follow and nothing to connect him to anything but that gun that he most likely bought from a pawn shop. There is also his tendency to avoid contact with the other students, and him coming in at different times, and always eating in different places, avoiding a pattern. It seems that he has done something like this multiple times and he seems to be trying to stay under the radar." Yuuto explained to the president of the ORC.

"It seems like we have a mystery on our hands considering Freemont-san." Akeno said to them, the first thing that she had said the entire meeting. She seemed to have been a bad mood since the previous night, for some it was hard to tell, but to them it was as plain as day.

Akeno was right and as she was thinking about what she had been told, everything seemed to add up. Isolation and no information on him, but it still didn't explain his ability to injure a fallen angel. "You're right Akeno. But the question I want to know the answer to is who it is he is running from?" That was what they were all asking. "But, we will give them this last day as humans before we move."

* * *

Issei was in Matsuda's house trying to enjoy his time with his friends and their usual conversations that would go on for hours about which character had a better rack. He, shockingly, was not contributing to the conversation, which was worrying since he was considered to be a worshipper of a nice pair of boobs on a good day.

It didn't take long for his friends to notice that he wasn't participating in their conversation about the characters in the video and turned to ask him what was wrong. "Hey, Issei? Something wrong with you?"

Issei used the excuse that he had used all day when his friends asked that of him. "Oh! Hehe, sorry, I was just thinking about that dream again." He said in an embarrassed tone while scratching his head.

Matsuda gave him a disbelieving look before saying, "Seriously, get over it man! It was a dream, a dream where you introduced a girl to us, claiming that she was your girlfriend. Just because you seem to think it was real doesn't' have either of us fooled. Now shut up and watch the show. You're a fan of this character right?"

Issei was annoyed at his friend and moved to say something but was cut off by Motohama who said, "I concur with Matsuda, Issei. You should just forget about that dream and focus on what's real: Like Momo-chan's boobs!" He told his friend with a perverted giggle, before sobering and getting up and continuing to speak, "Let's turn off the lights for a more dramatic mood now."

Motohama turned off the lights and sat back down to continue watching the video. "Ah! Much better!"

"I know!"

Issei looked around and saw everything clearly like the lights were on. That was weird, he thought Motohama turned out the lights, and asked if he would, "Hey Motohama? I thought you said that you were turning the lights?"

Motohama looked at him confused. "But I did. Are you sure you're okay Issei?" Motohama asked his friend worriedly. Sure when they were caught by the sports teams, he and Matsuda would leave Issei to burn in a heartbeat, but that didn't mean they didn't get worried, especially when he was acting strangely.

Issei, for one realized that it wasn't that his friend had not turned off the light, but he could see in the dark. He needed to find an excuse to leave quickly, before they became even more aware that something was wrong. Looking at the clock he saw the time and shot up. "Oh no guys! I promised that I'd be home early tonight, so I got to go!"

Matsuda looked as if the world no longer made any sense to him, and Motohama was not far behind. Issei was not pushing his Curfew to the limit to watch just a little more smutty goodness? Had the apocalypse started and they not notice?

"Issei? Bro? It's getting to the best part!" Was what they said to express their worry.

Outside Issei looked around and headed towards the direction he knew his home to be. This day had been confusing and a bit scary. He knew for a fact that he and John Freemont had both been killed by some lady with wings that could shoot lasers from her hands. He knew for a fact that that lady with wings had been his girlfriend who he had taken on a date and introduced to his friends. So why didn't they remember? Why were he and Freemont-san the only ones aware that something was wrong?

Suddenly he stopped when he heard a boy crying and whining to his mother about wanting a toy and the mother telling him to calm down or be punished, the problem was that they were all the way at the end of the block, completely opposite to him. How…how could he have heard that from all the way down the street?

"Hey there, Issei." He heard a voice say behind him causing him to spin around and lash out in surprise. His hand was caught easily, by John Freemont, who seemed to be measuring the punch like he was examining the weather of the day. "Hmm. Sloppy throw, but with a good amount of force. This would have broken somebody's jaw if they hadn't been prepared." He evaluated the punch.

"Freemont-san, what are you doing here?" He asked the other victim of his ex why he was so close to him after he had gotten out of his friend's home.

"I'm keeping an eye on you. I saw some people throwing glances your way during lunch and figured that it would be worth it to look after you?" He explained to the boy why he was in the area.

"Who was watching me?" He asked wanting an answer as he wanted to find what the hell was going on.

"Kiba Yuuto." He said simply to the other boy.

"I knew there was something weird about that no good pretty-boy!" Issei exclaimed about the, mutually agreed upon by the male population of Kuoh, "Enemy of all Males", Kiba Yuuto.

"Your issues with Kiba aside, I was able to find that there is definitely something weird going on but I still don't know. I went by that park where we were killed and found no damage." John told the boy.

"What, it was repaired from all that damage?" What was weird about that?

"Repaired implies that there is some evidence that the damage occurred. It's like the entire event never even happened. And with how many trees that got destroyed by your ex there should have been something missing or out of place, but there they were all there, not a leaf out of place." John explained why it was so weird to the other boy who seemed to get the significance of what he was saying, there was no evidence that they had died but their own memories.

"By the way, something weird happened earlier. I could…" Issei was cut off by John who finished what he was saying without missing a beat.

"See in the dark like it was broad daylight, and hear conversations that were at least 20 meters away?"

"Yes, exactly!" Issei confirmed to the other guy.

"I experienced the same thing. It immediately began after the sun set. I'm also going to guess that you've been feeling slightly tired today as well, like the bones in your body are being squeezed with each passing minute?" John asked him about the felling of lethargy that he had been experienced all day.

Issei thought about it for a second before saying, "Now that you mention it…"

Thinking that there had been enough Q and A on their apparent mutual demise and resurrection, he decided that it was time to go. "Come on, let's get you to your house."

"Why are we going to my house?" He asked, wondering why this guy wanted to get him to his home, but lead the way regardless heading for a shortcut through the park, the same place they were killed.

"Listen, we have people watching us and we both know for a fact that the woman who killed us last night is still out there. If and when she finds out that we are still alive, she will come for us, which is why I'm getting you home right now." He explained the situation to the brunette.

Issei nodded, but stopped when he realized that John had said nothing about himself. "Wait, but wha-" he stopped talking and his body started shaking like a leaf. Fear seized his heart and he didn't know why.

John was experiencing the same thing, only to a lesser degree, he had felt the same sense of fear as a child when he was living on the streets, when he was nine after escaping from the facility, the fear of death, a feeling he was quite familiar with because of his scrapes with it in the past.

Turning around, where they felt the feeling originating from, John narrowed his eyes at seeing an older man wearing a fedora and tan duster, walking towards them. John got his shaking under control, but Issei…Issei looked like he was staring death right in the face.

That's when the man started talking, "Well this is unfortunate, I go for a small walk and run into beings like you." Beings, he definitely said beings, not human, which meant that he either didn't recognize them as human but something else or he himself wasn't human at all. Something was telling him that the answer was both.

The man then gave a feral look mixed with a self assured smirk towards them. Without any conscious thought John jumped back, putting a few more meters between himself and the man and Issei was even farther back. How had he and Issei been able to jump that far back, even athletes in peak condition wouldn't be able to make that kind of jump without the proper momentum.

"Flinching away huh?" He said in an arrogant tone, not dissimilar to the woman from last night, "This is why I can't stand lower beings." Lower beings? What was this guy on about?

John thought that now would probably be a good time to run and turned around running as fast as he could, grabbing Issei on the way and continuing on, never noticing that both of them were exceeding speeds past human capability.

It was all for naught as John noticed several black feathers falling and looked up to see the same man with a pair of pitch black wings flying above them before swooping down to land in front of them to continue talking, "Running away, huh? Your master and friends aren't coming, there is no sign of you using magic circles and you are running away. I judge you to be strays." Strays? Master? Magic, what the hell was this guy talking about?

As soon as he said the word strays, he manifested two energy spears. They were similar to the winged woman's spear but different in design and color, where hers had been pink with a long thin design, his were bright blue and looked similar to ceremonial broadswords than spears. "In this case, it will be no trouble if I kill you two."

Seeing no other alternative, John turned to Issei. "Go, run as fast as you can!" He ordered, there was going to be another fight.

"But-"

"Go!" John told him in a firmer voice as he pulled out his gun. Issei hesitated but turned to run.

He didn't make it far before the man threw both spears. John, not having enough time to move crossed his arms, hoping that they would stop the spear before it did any lethal damage, only for him to be completely surprised when the spear impacted it shattered leaving nothing but some scratches. Unfortunately, Issei wasn't as lucky as the spear skewered him from behind leaving him on the ground with blood running from his mouth and with a face twisted in complete agony.

"This hurts like a bitch!" he rasped in pain, "I'm sure it didn't hurt this bad when Yuma did it." He tried to grab the weapon, only for it to burn him and cause him to cry out in pain.

"Light is a lethal poison to your kind, you," He said gesturing to John, "Are a lot tougher than I thought you were as was he," the man gestured to a writhing Issei before snapping his finger, causing the spear to dissipate, before making another. "But one more should end his life as a stray." He said lifting the spear to throw.

Lifting the gun faster than he could remember ever doing so before, John snarled, "Will you just shut the fuck up and explode!" When he pulled the trigger he felt something leave his body through his hand and into the gun. As the bullet fired out of the barrel he could see a faint red glow that followed the path of the bullet as it flew towards the man who had switched the position of his spear to use as a shield against the projectile.

The moment the bullet impacted it let loose a powerful explosion much bigger than the exploding round he had loaded should have been capable of. He didn't lower his gun, and was right to as the smoke cleared, revealing the man to be completely unharmed but his spear gone.

What was this guy? He took the brunt of a large explosion and he looked like it hadn't even touched him.

The man let loose a dark chuckle as he stared at John with a look of blood lust as he made another spear and got ready to throw it. John was frozen, he couldn't stop this…this monster! That explosion hadn't even fazed him and that had probably been his only chance to beat this thing. He was going to die, he was going to die again and so was Issei. Was he so weak that he couldn't even keep one kid from dying two nights in a row?

Right when the man was about to release the spear a red stream of energy shot out and destroyed the spear causing the man, John and Issei to look towards a red circle that was swirling on the ground and in the center was a girl wearing the Kuoh Academy girls Uniform with long red hair and a curvaceous figure, accentuated by the corset that she wore. Looking at the man she said, "You will not touch them." In an authoritative tone.

Behind him, he heard Issei rasp, "That red hair. It's…Rias." Before he lost the last of his strength and fell unconscious.

The man looked irritated from being interrupted from his activity activated another spear and launched it at Rias, calling out, "Who do you think you are?" before John could react. His assistance was unnecessary as a girl fell down from the trees surrounding them and deflected the spear away from the girl, and to John's surprise, the girl turned out to be Koneko, the young first year who had ate lunch with him earlier.

The spear flew back into the man's hand and he looked to make another move on the pair as he charged forward, only to be thwarted in his endeavor once more as many circles appeared and launched what looked like a thunderbolt at the man forcing him to retreat again losing his fedora in the process.

A third girl with long black hair, wearing the Girl's uniform as well appeared with lightning crackling across her fingers as she gave a light giggle, as if almost electrocuting the winged man had given her some form of enjoyment.

The man recovering from his lapse in control, looked closer at the apparent leader of the trio that had appeared before him and said, "Red hair…so you are the Gremory heiress." While picking up his fedora and dusting it off.

The girl stepped forward towards the man with a stance that spoke of well earned pride before she spoke to the man, "I am Rias Gremory, and how are you tonight, Fallen Angel?"

John stood frozen in shock as the three girls had managed to stop this man's assault where he had failed and had done so with apparent ease. He looked back and forth between the two people speaking

"Imagine my surprise to find this town under the control of the next head of a house of the seventy-two pillars." He turned and gestured to John and Issei before continuing "Are they part of your household?"

Rias looked to John who was still standing and Issei on the ground with a hole in his back and narrowed her eyes before she said, "Touch them again and I will annihilate you where you stand." With conviction in her voice to let the man know that she was willing to back up her threat.

"Well I'm sorry about what happened, but you should keep a tighter leash on your servants. Someone like me might try to hunt them while simply out taking a walk." He responded delivering his own subtle threat in response to hers.

"I'll take what you said into consideration, but for my part, if something like this happens again, I will not hesitate to start something." At this point her eyes changed to give a sharp, feral look to the Fallen Angel. "So keep that in mind."

"I could say the same thing to you, heiress of the Gremory." He told her before flying off, and even though he was gone his voice still lingered around, "My name is Dohnaseek, and hope we do not meet again Lady Gremory."

When the fallen angel was gone, the girls moved towards Issei as the ignored John's frozen form, his gun at his side, as he stared at them as they talked as if talking about the weather.

"That was careless." The girl with dark hair said as the red haired one looked down at Issei's body.

"I didn't think they would run into a fallen one." Rias replied to the dark haired girl's accusation to being careless.

Koneko stepped towards John's form who was still looking shocked at the three girls. She stopped in front of him raising her hands to cup his face to make him look at her. "John-senpai?"

Looking into the girls eyes, he whispered, "Koneko-…san?" before falling to his knees. His arms flared in agony and he looked at the cuts, they weren't as small as they were when the spear had shattered and looked like they were bleeding quite badly. What was going on?

"Buchou?" Koneko said with more urgency than he had ever heard in her voice.

"Oh my," The dark haired girl said, he couldn't help but think there was an undertone of anger in that subdued statement, why would she be angry? "It seems like he didn't get out as unscathed as we thought he did."

Koneko continued talking, "They'll die if we don't do something."

Die? He was going to die? It really looked like he was not going to get that chance at friendship he had wanted or answers to what the hell was happening.

"I have no intention of letting them die." Rias told the other two. How was she going to stop…death? "after all, these boys are my…" His hearing stopped working as he lost consciousness.

* * *

_In front of me was a man, a man who I had hunted through this facility, who had evaded me for a long time._

_He had lasted longer than most anyone else before. Most of the people had barely lasted half the time that this man had. He was not unscathed, and neither was I, we both had bruises and cuts from the many altercations we had in the time I had hunted for him. The only one who had outlasted this one was the first_

_As long as he had evaded me, and the longer the time went on, I got smarter with this one, got closer with every encounter, and now here we were. He was on the ground, crawling away from me, muttering something I could not understand._

_I heard the sound of heels on the ground, click-clack, click-clack, and a woman with blond hair with piercing green eyes and wearing a lab coat entered into my sight, staring down at the man with some form of malicious glee._

"_Very good, Commander Li. Not many have lasted this long against this one; in fact you're the third person to ever make it past the thirty minute mark." She said to him in a cheerful voice, as if the entire game of cat and mouse had been the best form of entertainment she had experienced. The man snarled at the woman and spoke to her, saying things I could not understand. "Now, now commander, there is no need to be rude. You gave this one a good challenge, something that is all too rare for him and it has allowed us to gather more data on his capabilities." She reached into her coat, pulling out a glock and passed it to me. "Now, finish the test." She ordered me._

_Catching the gun, I pointed it at the man. The gun was awkward in my small hands, and as I pointed it at the man he began screaming at me, and then I pulled the trigger. The gun that had barely fit into my grip flew up but the bullet went through the man's head, spreading bone, blood and brain matter across the floor._

_The woman smiled at me and walked forward. She placed her hand on my shoulder and said, "Well done, Subject 7."_

* * *

John jolted awake, from the memory he had experienced. That memory was new as most of the time, all he remembered when he dreamed of that time was when he escaped. That memory…was before even that. Just what had those people done to him? No, the better question was, what had they made him do? And why was he called Subject 7?

Hearing a soft snore, John looked down and gained a healthy blush at seeing the black haired beauty from the night before who had shown up with Koneko and the red haired girl holding onto him with his arm held loosely by her unconscious grip, wearing only a frilly pink bra that barely held her rather large assets and a matching pair of sexy lacy panties. Why was she there and why was she only in her underwear though?

She really was beautiful much like Koneko, even with him not having that much experience with people he could tell that much. However unlike Koneko, who had a sort of cute beauty with her diminutive size and was just plain adorable, this girl was just outright sexy. A large bust that was just a bit larger than Rias' from last night with long black hair that was let loose that surrounded her head and body like some kind of dark halo, a thin waist and wide hips leading down to long legs that went on for miles, and smooth skin that gave off a slight glowing in the morning light, whose softness he could feel with her arms holding onto his. This girl was not just sexy; she was seduction incarnate.

He slowly unwinded himself from her grip slowly so as not to wake her. Thoughts of last night sprung up into his mind, this girl had been there last night and protected him and Issei from the man- no, Fallen Angel was what he thought they called him. Did that mean that the people who revived them were just people who were part of the Occult research club? Meaning that Kiba was watching Issei…and so had Koneko with him.

Getting out of his bed he saw his gun on the bedside table and reached to grab it, before he paused. His arm… it was healed, when last night there had been large gashes that had been small cuts and now there was nothing to indicate it ever happened.

"Oh. So you are awake? And I was hoping to see your face when you woke up." The girl said in a disappointed tone. Why had she wanted to see his face?

Well that was the bonehead question of the morning as it became blaringly obvious as to why. She was a girl, a drop dead gorgeous girl at that, and she had been mostly naked in his bed, and as soon as he looked down to see that he was only in his underwear as well, so had he. When he made those realizations he gained a healthy blush that spread across his face and the girls disappointment evaporated and she let out a small giggle.

"Fufufu, the Lone Wolf blushing, what would the girls at the academy think if they saw this?" She asked while giving an innocent yet somewhat scary giggle with mirth shining in her purple eyes.

"Well I'd say they'd think that Issei had corrupted me and would try to beat him into the ground. But really what guy wouldn't blush at seeing a beautiful girl lying almost naked on his bed?" He responded before he could stop himself from saying that, and he soon developed a blush from embarrassment at his motor mouth and looked away.

The girl blushed as well from being called beautiful before composing herself and getting out of the bed to stand in front of him and crossed her arms in front of her. "Well we haven't been introduced yet, but my name is Akeno Himejima. It's a pleasure to meet you Freemont-kun." She said in a pleasant and cheerful voice.

John for his part, was having a hard time looking at her face as her crossed arms squeezed her breasts together causing a rather pleasant sight for anyone who was part of the opposite sex, and a few of the same. "Well, um, as you know I'm John Freemont, but you can call me John if you wish, Himejima-senpai."

The girl seemed to brighten up at the offer and replied, "Why thank you John-kun, but you have to call me Akeno, you can even call me –chan if you wish."

John blushed a little more at that offer. John may not be an expert in linguistics, but he knew that that particular suffix along with the one she had used was used with great affection in the Japanese society; he needed to divert the conversation. "Um, well I, um…how about you go take a shower and I'll wash your clothes for you?" That was good, they would be in separate rooms and he would have time to clear his head.

Akeno giggled at the offer. "Oh, do you want to take my underwear and do naughty things with it?" She continued to giggle with a light blush. If John had been drinking something he would have done a spit take that would go down in the record books. Did this girl get off on flustering people?

"I, well. No, um…" Normally John was not so easy to fluster but if one worked at it long enough then they would maybe get a blush out of him. Akeno had been working toward that goal since she woke up and was well past the blushing.

The girl giggled some more, before walking into the hall and into his bathroom where she closed the door for a few seconds before it opened slightly and he saw her slender hand reach out, holding her panties and bra, shaking the articles of clothing before dropping them on the floor and closing the door.

It was official, Akeno liked to embarrass him.

Sighing he, put on a pair of pants and picked up the discarded clothes from Akeno and took them down to the room where he kept his washer and dryer where he put them in, followed by a small amount of detergent before starting the machine.

He looked at the clock to see that it was just turning six, which meant that he and Akeno would need to be at school in two hours. Rias would probably send someone for him and Issei to take them to the Club room of the ORC, probably Kiba, oh that was going to be hell for the rumor mill, since the girls would yell out about Issei corrupting Kiba and being in some kind of weird sado-masochistic relationship. And since he would be there he would probably be pulled into the rumor as well.

When he finished that, admittedly, disturbing train of thought, the washer stopped, snapping him out of further thought on the subject. Taking the clothes out, he took special care to not touch the undergarments without at least her other clothes around them, he placed them in the dryer and started the machine on a lower heat setting so Akeno's clothes, specifically her underwear, wouldn't shrink because the uniform was thinner than the boys.

Leaving the laundry room, he went towards his room, past the bathroom where he could hear the shower running and Akeno humming, and went right for the bedside table and picked up the gun. He remembered what happened with his gun last night and the explosion that occurred when the bullet he'd fired had impacted was much larger than it possibly should have been. Dispensing the magazine he removed one of the bullets and analyzed it. He made all of his special bullets, all of the special ammunition were liquid based and were held in a semi-durable plastic that held a small amount of the chemicals that would burst on contact. This specific round was from his explosive rounds, which held small amounts of nitroglycerin that released an explosion the size of the average human torso.

He knew this because he had tested it when he first made them. The reason they did not explode while he was carrying them through the day was because he had created a special pocket in his bag that was loaded with large amounts of cotton to keep any impact minimal, and the fact that there was no air in the plastic head as he made sure there was no air left in the plastic when he made the bullets.

The question was why was the explosion last night much larger than what he knew that the rounds were capable of? Did it have something to do with that feeling of something leaving his body right before he fired the round in question? And if so what was that feeling?

Hearing a buzz from the dryer, he placed the round back into the magazine and put it into the bag in the pocket stuffed with large amounts of cotton. He frowned, he would need to make more soon. He never made more than three magazines of explosive rounds, more than that would have been enough to destroy an entire section of the school so there was never more than three. Sure a part of him knew that it was not that _much_ smarter to carry enough to destroy his classroom but the organization had more people and better equipment than he did and he needed and edge over them if they ever caught up to him.

Walking back towards the laundry room, he opened the dryer and pulled out the clothes and folded them up for Akeno and grudgingly placing the bra and panties on top. Looking at the bra, John had an involuntary thought that went something like, "Damn." At the cupsize of the bra, and to think Akeno was still a growing girl.

Taking the clothes to the bathroom he placed them on the floor and knocked. "Akeno-san, your clothes are washed and are just outside the door, you can get them when you're done."

"Thank you, John-kun." He heard through the door and he turned to leave and get his own clothes and heard the bathroom door open and a rustle, letting him know that Akeno had grabbed her clothes, before hearing the door close again.

When he returned, Akeno opened the door wearing her school uniform, which left almost nothing to the imagination as the white blouse and black corset clung to her frame and her shoulders were covered by the cape that the girls of the school wore with their uniforms, revealing her curvy body and the black and red skirt went down to mid thigh, revealing long creamy legs, and her hair was pulled back into a long ponytail held back by an orange ribbon that went down all the way to her calves.

John was left gaping at the beauty before him, his mouth opening and closing as he tried to find his voice, if he didn't know any better, he might have thought that angelic smile was out of kindness, but he knew that even when she wasn't teasing him that she didn't need to as she was really a beautiful girl.

She walked past him saying, "I'll make some breakfast, since you were kind enough to wash my clothes for me." She giggled as she walked to the kitchen.

Walking into the bathroom, he took a long cold shower. For some reason, Akeno's S-senses were tingling and she let out a small disturbing giggle while she was cooking.

When John was fully clothed he went to the kitchen to find Akeno with an apron over her uniform stirring something in a pot and she had placed most of the food on the table. Walking over he asked, "Um is there anything that I can do to help you?"

Akeno looked back towards him and gave him a sweet smile and said, "Yes, can you bring a drink and glasses to the table while I finish stirring the miso soup, and put it on the table?"

"Yes of course. And did you say miso soup?" He queried to the dark haired girl who was making breakfast as he moved towards the fridge and opened it and pulled out some orange juice and went to the shelves to grab some glasses.

"Yes, I was surprised that you had tofu in your fridge, most people from America don't normally have it." She told him as she stopped stirring and poured the soup into a bowl and carried it to the table. "Have you ever had miso soup before?"

He placed the glasses on the table and filled them with the juice and placed the juice away from the food. "Not really." When he said that she perked up for some reason, "Before all the stuff with the Fallen Angels happened I was hoping to try making some to see if I could but I was busy trying to figure out why somebody was trying to make me and Issei think that the entire event was a dream." He explained to her why he had the tofu and his reasons for not being able to do anything about it.

"So you were aware that something was going on from the beginning? What gave it away?" she asked him, curious as to what they did wrong.

"I was aware the moment I woke up and I can give you three reasons why." He told her and began to explain as she poured him a bowl of soup and rice and a plate of rolled omelets and broiled fish. "When I woke up, I had my gun, which was the first clue as I never sleep with it under my pillow." He explained the first point as he was eating a bit of the soup, it was really good.

Akeno looked at him confused as she asked, "Why not?" looking into the mistakes that were made in order to avoid them being made again. "Also how is the soup?"

"Delicious, thank you. The reason why is because I stopped that habit two years ago when I had to leave from an apartment because the neighbors were getting worried when they kept hearing gunshots in the morning." He told her the reason, as he watched her swell with pride at his praise of her cooking, which included her jutting out her very impressive chest.

"And your other clues?" She asked him.

"The gun was loaded, and with my special ammo. I don't load my gun at home for similar reasons for why I don't sleep with the gun under my pillow and the special ammo is too destructive to use in confined spaces." He told her while taking a bite of the fish as she nodded in understanding of the other mistakes. "And you should really tell Kiba to be more discreet when watching someone, I was able to spot him with ease."

Akeno smiled at him before speaking to him after she took a bite of rice and some miso soup. "And Koneko-chan?"

"I didn't realize she was watching me until I saw her with you and Rias to fend off the Fallen Angel, and I had not made the connection of Kiba to the Occult Research Club, so if I had, I may have realized." He told her of his shortcomings.

"Oh, Koneko-chan was not watching you; she was making sure you were human before being resurrected." Akeno told him as she was eating some more of the food she had made.

"Why was she doing that?" He was curious now.

Akeno sobered for a second while speaking, "While you were still human, you managed to injure a Fallen one with a mundane human weapon, that is not normal, even with these 'special ammunition'" She added air quotes for the ammo he habitually carried around, "You should not have been capable of even ruffling a few of her feathers, yet you managed to take a few off." She explained their belief into him not being completely human.

"And I set her on fire." He added noncommittally.

That made Akeno pause as she was taking a bite of her omelet. "What?" She asked in a surprised tone, "How were you able to accomplish that?"

"Well she was really arrogant, and when I got her on the ground after shooting her wing with an exploding round," that explained why there were feathers around the ground when they arrived, "I started shooting her with rounds with some kerosene in the tips before I shot her with an exploding round after she impaled me with her laser lance or whatever it was." He told her how he managed to accomplish what not a lot of people were capable of as humans, and usually those humans were highly trained.

"Well that's quite the tale. And how did you like a traditional Japanese breakfast?" She asked him as she had somehow gotten close to him while he had told her the story without him even noticing.

Being close to the buxom girl had him blushing, to Akeno's amusement. "It was really delicious, I kinda wish I could eat like this every morning, but this is probably a onetime deal right?"

Akeno leaned over to him and he could feel her large breasts pushing up against his arm as she leaned to whisper in his ear, "It doesn't have to be if you don't want it to." With a light blush across her face.

Looking at the girl who had just offered to cook him breakfast every morning if he wanted to, John decided to ask the question that had been bothering him all morning. "Um well, sorry to ask, but, why were you in my bed? And why were you only in your underwear?"

Akeno was kind of disappointed that she didn't get an answer to her proposition, but answered his question. "Well I had to saturate your body with my healing magic and the more skin on skin contact the faster and more effective the healing is on the injured and considering that you had shards of light embedded in your skin that was poisoning you, it was quite necessary. And the other reason is that I cannot sleep comfortably in clothes, just being in my underwear was a challenge for me to sleep, but with you it was actually quite easy to fall asleep." She literally purred to him as she told him she normally slept in the nude.

Picturing a naked Akeno on a bed as she slept, caused him to develop a large blush across his face. Now he was not a pervert, but he had seen women naked bodies hundreds of times, but those had been low end hookers, who he had stumbled on when he was a child while living on the streets in New York. None of those women were what he would call attractive in any sense of the word, but Akeno's body and behaviorisms spoke of seduction and aggressive sexiness, and mixed in with her teasing nature, John had one hell of a woman on his hands.

He took a sip of the orange juice to calm down, but Akeno, being herself, decided to get one more shot in. "Would you prefer me to wear nothing but an apron when I cook your breakfast tomorrow?" The spit take that followed was rather large and threw John into a large coughing fit making Akeno giggle some more.

Forget liking to embarrass him, Akeno was a complete sadist!

Seeing that they were almost done, John picked up the dishes and placed them near the sink and began to wash the dishes since they had time before they had to leave for school, and he felt that he would not be arriving until later tonight and would like to go to sleep immediately.

When he was done he put on his shoes and grabbed his book bag while offering to carry Akeno's as well, which she accepted, it was the least he could do for the girl who had healed him.

As they walked out the door he couldn't help but chuckle. It was going to be a hectic day, might as well have some fun with it, he thought with a feral smile that had Akeno shivering in delight.

**Chapter two, done.**

**So what do you guys think. Again I added onto canon. If light spears from Angels and Fallen Angels are considered a lethal poison to devils, then why was it never expanded on past Dohnaseek, when Issei faced Raynare later on with the series, so I made it to where the longer a devil is untreated from light spears the more serious any injury becomes, which is why John's scratches became gashes when he passed out, from a combination of shock at seeing three girls stop Dohnaseek's assault with ease and with one of those girls being Koneko. Also when the light spear shattered, small shards embedded in Johns arms which was why there were scratches and made his poisoning somewhat worse because Dohnaseek's assumption that his spear being ineffective against John, lead to him not dissipating the spear which made John's poisoning worse as he had small shards of light in his arms for a prolonged time.**

**Additions to the harem: Serafall, Sona, Katarea and Isabela.**

**So John's harem will be: : Akeno, Koneko, Kuroka, Xenovia, Yubelluna, Grayfia, Serafall, Sona, Katarea, Kalawarner and Isabela. And that is it, there will be no more additions to this harem and I will not budge on this matter. Also Issei gets Ravel of course.**


	3. Chapter 3: Learning the Ropes

The Super Soldier of Gremory

Chapter 3: Learning the Ropes

Disclaimer: I do not own Highschool DxD, but the OC is mine.

_When I heard the man ask that question, I was unsure as to what he meant. Terminate, as in kill, this seven? What had seven done to justify termination?_

_ In response to the man's question a smooth stern voice said, "Subject 7 is growing more aware as time passes. Before long he may even begin to question why he takes orders from us to begin with."_

_ "But he is the most promising subject we have had so far in this program." The first voice said in protest to the woman's reasoning. "All the others have fallen short where he has flourished and grown, and his capacities grow by the day, if we could find a way to hinder his awareness…"_

"_And if we were unable to? Then what? By that point Subject 7 will be too powerful to control and we would be unable to even slow him down! It is better to terminate him now and use the data we have collected so far to start again."The woman finished her explanation to the man as they passed the cart._

_The man was not finished yet. "But he is your son-"_

"_He is not my son! He is the Subject and I am his tester nothing more nothing less." She almost yelled to the man but remained in control._

"_That reaction says otherwise, and did you think I would not notice the similarities? It is amazing that none of the others have realized yet Amanda…"I was unable to hear anymore as the people went beyond the range of my hearing._

* * *

The walk to the school was rather pleasant with John and Akeno making small talk on the way to pass the time. He had learned that she was the Vice-president of the Occult Research club, which was used as a front for Rias Gremory as a place for her and the others who were part of her group, to meet up and most of the time hang out. He also found out that she was also a member of a clan of priests and priestesses but had been kicked out for some reason, what that reason was, he was unsure but he had too many secrets of his own so did not pry into hers as he was sure it would not be appreciated, and with her sadistic tendencies, she could find ways to make him suffer.

Overall, Akeno was fun to talk to and the time past quickly, and they arrived at school before they knew it.

Upon their arrival they were spotted by a few students who began pointing and whispering to each other, not that it did any good as he heard them as clearly as if they were standing right next to him as they made their way to the main school building.

"Oh is that Akeno onee-sama, with Freemont-kun?!" One girl whispered excitedly to another, receiving an equally excited response.

"Yes it is! Who would have thought one of the Onee-samas would walk to school with the Lone Wolf? He is notorious for being a loner." The other girl whispered.

"Ooh, are they dating, it would be so romantic, don't you think they would make an amazing couple?!" John blushed at that, him and Akeno a couple? Sure she was a beautiful girl with an amazing body and a fun, if sadistic, personality, but he really didn't think they would ever be considered a real couple. And then there was the thing with Koneko who had seemed to drift towards him since he had brought her cat to her. Maybe he was over thinking the situation?

As he was thinking about that one of the girls whispered, "At least their pairing would make more sense than Rias onee-sama and that pervert, Issei. I mean what was she thinking, he will corrupt her pure body with his lust and depravity!" One of the girls cried out in apparent despair.

John raised an eyebrow, these people really did not like the pervert. Sure it was understandable considering that the guy peeked on girls almost every day, but at least he didn't harass the girls or announce their three sizes like the other two members of the perverted trio. He really had to wonder why Issei was the one that got dragged on the most while the other two were mainly left alone unless they were with Issei. Was it because he was the recognized leader of the ring of perverts that he was hated on the most?

All thoughts of Issei and his friends left John's mind as he felt two slender arms wrap around his own, and then felt the arm being surrounded by two of the softest things he had ever felt. Looking to Akeno, he saw that she had his arm held by her own arms and nestled his between her large breasts with a mischievous smirk on her face. The giggling of the girls grew louder and more frantic and he could have sworn he heard someone crying out in despair for some reason, and he felt a sharp spike in killing intent from most of the guys in the area who saw Akeno take hold of his arm.

Really, this was the KI that they managed to raise all together? It barely made his arm hair rise. Deciding to have some fun, John, unleashed a healthy amount of KI that made all the guy's in the area fall to their knees and begin to shake uncontrollably as his overwhelming presence and malice washed over them. One of the guys rolled in the fetal position as the waves rolled over them, before John decided that they had had enough and let up on the KI.

"Ufufufu." He heard Akeno giggle darkly beside him and looking over, he saw that the girl had a light blush on her face as she stared at him with hunger. "Why John-kun, where did you learn to do that? It was amazing!" She said to him while licking her lips as the blush darkened a bit.

"I learned it as a kid." He told her and continued, "I didn't grow up in the…best of places when I was a kid and had to learn some deterrents in order to stay somewhat safe. A couple of weeks and I was capable of doing what you just saw." He explained to her in a way that did not reveal a whole lot about himself.

Akeno looked at some of the shell-shocked boys around them and even a few of the girls in the school shivered slightly even though the KI had not been directed at them. "But to bring people to their knees and even have that one boy rolling on the ground is quite impressive; I just might have to ask you to teach me." She giggled into her hand.

Looking at the devestation to the boys on the campus, he proudly stated, "That's nothing, if I had really let loose, all of them would be lying unconscious after having seen multiple ways in which they die violently."

Akeno looked excited at the prospect of learning something like that in the future and began thinking of ways to get him to teach her that skill, it could come in handy.

They entered the main building soon and separated, telling him that somebody would be sent to pick him up at the end of the day.

As she walked away, he turned towards the stairway to head towards class and…What the fuck?

There was Issei with his two friends, frantically playing rock, paper, scissors for some reason with nose bleeds. He really did not want to know and skirted around them and went up the stairs to get away from that particular brand of craziness.

As he reached the second floor landing he looked in the direction of his class and saw Rias Gremory talking with a girl about her age. The girl had dark hair that was styled in a bob cut with round glasses covering violet eyes. She wore the Kuoh academy uniform with immaculate perfection, and it clung to her body much like Akeno's had with the corset emphasizing her small waist and wide hips and the skirt went just past mid thigh before ending to reveal long smooth legs. She was rather attractive even if she wasn't as gifted as Akeno or Rias

This girl was Souna Shitori, the student council president. John thought about her name for a second and remembered where he had seen the name Gremory before, in the Ars Goetia.

He ran through all of the names in that book and compared them to the names he had seen and the only name he could think of that matched up with Shitori was the name of the prince Sitri.

A foreign name, similar to Rias Gremory's and both names were in the Ars Goetia and both were looking at Issei down in the foyer, John had read multiple forms of literature and demonology was one of the things that had caught his attention. Why were there two people who had the same names as some of the Keys of Solomon? That meant that the Student Council President either knew of or was a part of whatever was going on in Kuoh because if the members of the Occult Research Club were in on the situation, reason stood that the rest of the student council knew as well.

Deciding to put that train of thought to the side, John walked towards the two as they finished the conversation, and greeted them with the respect and etiquette that was expected of an underclassmen to his seniors, "Good morning Gremory-senpai, Sitri-senpai." As soon as he said Sona's name like that her eyes widened and her usual stoic mask that she wore in public gave way to shock. So he had been right about her name. He continued, talking to the two. "Oh, Gremory-senpai, I already know my way to the clubroom so don't send Kiba for me, but you can send him for Hyoudo." And with that he walked by them and into his classroom.

As soon as he was out of sight, Sona Sitri turned to her oldest friend/rival with an accusing glare. "You told him?" She said in an angry tone towards the buxom crimson haired girl.

"No she didn't." Said a cheery voice. Rias and Sona turned to see Akeno behind them, how she got there neither knew since they had seen her go in the opposite direction of the stairs, but they put Akeno's sudden appearance to the side in order to think about how John Freemont figured out Sona's real name. Akeno for her part decided to have a little fun. "Ara ara, shouldn't you be happy Kaichou, he knew your name without you even telling him, and you could and tell him he can call you Sona-chan. Ooh, is that a blush I see?" And Akeno was right, Sona had developed a rather large cute blush on her face as soon as Akeno had made the suggestion of John Freemont calling her –chan.

"Akeno stop teasing her." Rias ordered her friend, "We can talk about Sona's attraction to Freemont-san later" That statement had the Sitri heiress sputtering in embarrassment and half-hearted denials.

* * *

As classes let out for lunch, John grabbed a sandwich from the cafeterias servers and went outside to a shady tree away from the sports field because he really wanted to avoid seeing the stupidity that the Perverted Trio were going to put on today…a pleasure that he was deprived of when the three perverts walked by Matsuda holding up a porn magazine, much to the ire of every girl in the area.

"John-senpai." He heard the stoic voice of Koneko Toujou as she walked towards him and sat down next to him.

"Oh hello Koneko-san." He said to her before taking a bite of his sandwich and she took out her lunch box and began eating as well. "What brings you here?" He asked since he was curious as to why she would come out to him again today.

"I wanted to eat with you again." She said simply as she took a bite of some stuffed pastry, and paused for a second offering him some as well. "Please try it." She said with an adorable look that reminded him of a kitten for some reason.

Taking the pastry from her, he bit into it and thought that it was rather good, it was sweet and tasted kind of like a pop-tart from one of the rare times that he had been able to eat some back in America. Looking at her, he found Koneko staring at him with disturbing intensity. "It's good. Did you make that yourself?" He asked her, curious as to how she managed to make a stuffed pastry along with everything else before school.

"Yes." She told him, before looking at him and asking imploringly, "You're not angry at me for not telling you?" She asked, her stoic voice tinged with just a bit of worry. Why would she be worried about him being angry?

"Not really, I'm mainly frustrated with myself. I was so focused on Kiba it never occurred to me that you were keeping an eye on me as well." He explained in response to her question. "By the way, why did you guys think I may have supernatural connections?" He said, even though Akeno had explained their reasoning he was still rather unsure.

"It's rare for a human to kill a Fallen Angel, especially someone who has not been trained or was even aware the supernatural existed." Wow, that was the longest string of words she'd used since he met her.

"How rare?" He asked, figuring that he should check the odds.

"The last time a human killed a Fallen one was twenty years ago in Siberia, while training to be a Russian spec ops soldier." She said simply in response to his question.

"Is that some kind of trivia or whatever?" He asked as that was really specific and random to be intelligence of any kind.

"Yes." Was all she said.

"Well I guess I understand why you would think that I may have some connections, but it wasn't really that hard to outsmart her. She left openings that I took advantage of and in the end she should have made sure I was dead before turning her back on me." He said, talking about his own death with a disturbing casualness before remembering something.

"Bird watching," He said out of nowhere with a chuckle, remembering what she had told him the previous day, "Good excuse!" He barked before bursting up laughing, Koneko even had a small smile on her face at the humor.

As they finished lunch, John turned to the younger girl and asked, "Hey would it be okay if I crashed in the Clubroom for the next few hours? I don't feel like going to class today.

Koneko thought about it before nodding and led him to the old school building that had been occupied by the ORC as a headquarters since no one used the building for anything.

When they got inside, John noticed that the building was really well kept, as there was barely any dust or grime one would expect from a building that was rarely used by the school, but then again Rias Gremory was rumored to have access to a large amount of wealth, so it wasn't outside the realm of possibility that she used that money as a means to keep the building clean and in good repair.

When they reached the room the club used as a place to hang out and take care of business, he was really impressed. Nice couches and chairs with a real oak coffee table in the middle of it all, it really spoke of money and lots of it, a mahogany desk with little knick knacks all over it, a large design of a circle with a strange symbol on the edges and a large one in the center and…why was there a bath tub in here. Really, just when he thought he had reached his WTF quota for the day.

Walking over to the couch, John sat down while Koneko stayed near the door, getting ready to leave for her next class. Koneko watched him sit before saying, "See you when we introduce the pervert later." Before she closed the door and walked away.

When she was gone, John laid down on the couch and covered his eyes with his arm, trying to fall asleep, when he felt a sudden weight on his chest. Lifting his arm, he raised his head to see the thing that had landed on his chest to see Shiro, the cat who he had returned to Koneko. Smiling at the adorable kitten, he said, "Hey there little guy, it's been a while."

The cat meowed at his statement and John raised his other hand to pet the cat. As it started purring, he lowered his arm back down and continued to pet the white feline until he fell asleep.

* * *

Rias walked into the clubroom and noticed the boy laying on one of the sofas with a white cat on his chest. She recognized the cat easily as it was Koneko's, but why was it here? Usually when put into their area they were rather well behaved but Shiro seemed to have taken a liking to John as evidenced by the fact that the cat was laid out on the boy while purring in his sleep.

That actually brought a smile to her face as it indicated that John would interact well with the peerage if Shiro liked him enough to sleep on him. In comparison to John the rest of her members, bar Koneko, had less stellar relationships with the cat, like Kiba was well received and sought out if Koneko was not around but Shiro seemed to outright avoid Akeno and even left the room if she stayed longer than a few minutes, it seemed that the cat was more attuned to the personality of people than people were.

She went towards the desk and sat down. As soon as she was settled, the other members of the ORC walked into the room, all of them noticing the cat and the boy asleep and Koneko actually walked over to stroke the cat a few times before taking a seat on the other couch.

Soon Akeno brought out some sweets for everyone, Koneko, to snack on, before walking over to Rias and placing a cup of tea on the desk, her purple eyes shining with mirth as she stared at the boy asleep on the couch.

Rias sipped her tea with a small smile, John would definitely fit in well with her peerage, specifically two members.

The addition of Issei and John would also give Kiba more people to talk to. Kiba never complained but she could tell that he was uncomfortable at times with the lack of other male members, so it would be another plus for her peerage; add in the fact that Issei had a powerful sacred gear and John had enough skill and wit to actually harm a Fallen Angel, and she felt that she had gained some worthwhile additions to her peerage.

Rias frowned as she thought of the previous night. She knew now with the appearance of Dohnaseek that there was more than one Fallen in her territory. The Fallen would not act so boldly in her territory unless they had a significant number of members, including rogue exorcists.

From what she figured there were six Fallen angels at the max or three at a minimum, and a small force of the exorcists of at least twenty members. They had crossed one line with attacking two of her servants and she had sent the report of the unprovoked attack. It was just a waiting game from this point forward.

Looking up from her thoughts, Rias noticed the time and felt that Issei had waited long enough. "Kiba." She said the name the pretty boy who was lusted after by women and hated by men.

"Yes Buchou?" He responded to her call, already knowing what she was going to ask, only responding for formalities sake, he was strange like that.

"Would you get Issei and bring him here, John is already here as you can see and I would rather not have to say what I am about to twice." She told him. Kiba nodded and left the room.

John raised his arm to pick up Shiro, before hoisting himself up and placing the cat to the side before beginning to pet it again.

Rias stared at the boy before asking, "And how long have you been awake?"

"Since the moment you walked in, heard your conversation and agree with your reasoning. It's a better idea to tell us both at the same time rather than repeating yourself, it shows traits for a good leader." He complimented her choice of actions.

"Thank you." She responded to his kind words.

* * *

Yuuto Kiba walked down the halls of the second floor where the second years had classes. When he reached Issei's classroom, he opened the doors and as soon as the girls saw that it was him, he was swarmed.

"Kiba-kun, you're here! What can we do for you?" One girl asked.

"Do you want to go to karaoke with us?"

Were among the many questions and requests that he received from the fan girls before he told them, "I'm sorry, I'm here to pick someone up and to deliver a message." Before he paused looking for the one he was sent to retrieve before spotting him. "Issei Hyoudou-san, I'm here to take you to meet with Buchou."

All the girls looked at Kiba in shock before looking back and forth from him to Issei and back again.

Then they started screaming things like, "No, Kiba-kun, do go near that pervert! He'll corrupt you!"

"Hyoudou if Kiba-kun becomes a pervert, I'll castrate you!"

"Yay, for Kiba-kun, death to the pervert!"

The last one was said in unison between Murayama and Katase, who somehow pulled out a pair of authentic Japanese Katanas. The part of Kiba that was impressed by the blades design and good upkeep was completely overshadowed by the part that was wondering where in the name of the Satan's they had gotten real Japanese swords and how they got them into the school.

When Issei reached him, they both turned and left the room and all the hysterical girls, and a few men behind.

* * *

When they entered the room, Issei looked around at the well furnished room, spotting a small white haired girl with a black hair clip in the shape of a cat, "Holy crap, that's Koneko Toujou! I didn't know she was part of the Occult Research Club." He said with stars in his eyes while staring at Koneko, until he noticed the sound of running water and looked to see a full sized bath tub and shower on one side of the room with the silhouette of a crimson haired girl taking a shower, which had his eyes bulging out of their sockets as he watched the blurry figure who was humming.

It was official for Issei. This was the best club room that he had ever been in as he looked back and forth between Koneko and the shower.

The water stopped and the figure of the girl said, "Akeno, my clothes." as stepped out of the tub as the pervert watched her get dressed.

Koneko, seeing this, merely mumbled, "What a lewd face." Under her breath and went back to eating her sweets, never noticing that Issei let loose a small flow of tears at the insult he had heard which immediately stopped when the curtain opened revealing Rias, who was drying her hair, and Akeno.

Akeno spotted him and walked forward. "Oh my, you're the new club member aren't you?" She asked to which Issei responded with a nod while looking at her breasts, John gave him a withering glare that spoke of death and pain, which made Issei gulp as he knew that John could back up any threat he made, he should know, the guy set his ex on fire! Akeno was unaware the entire exchange had happened and continued speaking, "I am Akeno Himejima, the vice-president of the Occult Research Club, pleased to make your acquaintance." She said giving a small smile and straightened out, causing her breasts to jiggle.

Issei responded in a much more subdued manner than he normally would have considering he saw John still keeping an eye on him. "I-issei Hyoudou, please take care of me." He responded to her introduction with his own, keeping his lust under control under the close scrutiny of John Freemont.

John for his part did not know particularly why he was glaring at the perverted teen who many called the embodiment of sexual desire, it was just when he looked at Akeno, John had felt the urge to just unleash every ounce of KI he could muster and show the boy the multiple ways he could and would die if he dared to do anything lecherous to Akeno. He thought that it may be that he had never seen the boy so close to girls as beautiful as Akeno, Koneko and Rias, but threw that out the window when Issei turned to look at Rias with a lecherous expression and the urge failed to appear.

Rias smiled and directed Issei to sit in the seat next to Kiba and she leaned on her desk and began speaking to the two boys. "Well, I'd like to officially welcome you two to the Occult Research club. The club itself is a front, little more than a hobby for me and the members." She told them while smiling at the two newest members.

"Huh?" was the answer that Issei gave her.

She was about to explain but John beat her to that. "What she means is that the club is just a cover for the group, convenient excuses for them in case someone stumbles on something weird because they can just say that they're studying the supernatural." John summarized the idea of the club.

"Oh my, John-kun, that was an excellent observation for the purpose of the club." Akeno said to him with a soft smile

"Anyway, the club covers our activities, the reason for that is that we are devils." She told them

"Devils, you mean like demons?" Was John's response to the girl's explanation.

"Yes, but we prefer the term Devils. We also have enemies, like the man last night with the black wings, he was a fallen angel." Rias explained to the two new members of the group, "Fallen Angels were angels that were once in service to God from the Bible, but fell when they were corrupted by sinful acts and thoughts. Their goal since they fell has been to destroy us devils and take over the underworld, what humans call Hell, and manipulate humans.

"Our other enemies are the Angels who come down on Orders from God to destroy the Fallen ones and us devils, so in other words a three-way standoff." She finished the basic summary of the current state of affairs between the devils and their enemies and asked, "Have you two understood what you've been told so far?"

"Yeah." Was the reply from John, "Well that explains the names from the Ars Goetia." He mumbled catching the attention of Rias, but that was a question for another time.

"This story, seems a bit too much for an average high school student." Was what Issei told her while he was scratching the back of his head with his eyes closed.

Rias looked at the boy before saying something that she was sure that would catch the boy's attention, "Yuuma Amano." The affect of that name was obvious on Issei as he straightened up. "That's right you haven't forgotten her, you went on a date with her, and she killed you both." She gestured to the two boys on her couches.

Issei looked at the girl and said, "I don't know where you heard that name but I don't appreciate her being talked about in this club." He said looking like he was about to storm out.

Rias pulled out a picture from her skirt pocket and pulled out a picture that she flung onto the table, it was a picture of the girl that Issei had gone out with before she had turned into an S&amp;M stripper. Issei looked at the picture and whispered, "Yuuma-chan."

"That girl really did exist." Rias said in a firm tone, John looked at the picture confirming for himself that it really was the girl that murdered them both.

"How…how did you get that picture?" Issei asked, and now that John looked at the picture, it was taken at an angle that screamed private investigator.

"That girl, or Fallen Angel, is the same as the man who attacked you two last night." She said, telling them something that John had already figured out.

"But my friends don't remember her, and her address in my phone is gone so how…?" Issei trailed off, his question was obvious.

"She erased herself from the system, in a manner of speaking, after she completed her objective." Rias explained the reason why nobody except for John and Issei seemed to remember ever meeting her.

"I see. So she acted like a program that deletes system glitches and after those glitches were taken care of, she deleted herself from the memories of anyone she may have come in contact with." John said to himself about the missing memories of the people.

Rias looked to the boy. John Freemont seemed to be picking up on things like this a lot faster than a normal human should, and his lack of reaction in comparison to Issei was rather strange as he should be demanding for his questions to be answered. Not to mention his knowledge of the Ars Goetia.

"Yes, like that. Her objective was to kill you, and the reason why is because you had something dangerous inside of you, a [Sacred Gear]." Rias told him causing him to wonder what that was.

Fortunately, Akeno picked up on his question without him having to voice it. "[Sacred Gears] are rare items gifted to humans from God; they are powerful creations with a wide range of abilities that can be used to their wielder's advantage." Akeno gave a brief explanation.

What followed was Rias asking Issei to take a pose that made him feel the most powerful and to try and summon the [Sacred Gear] inside him. Issei tried his hardest but ultimately failed, due to the fact that he had been looking up Rias' skirt and not focusing on the task at hand, which Rias took in stride.

"But isn't it weird that we're both alive?" he asked while gesturing to John and himself after his failed 'attempt' to summon his [Sacred Gear].

Rias only responded by holding up something that both John and Issei recognized that had John straightening up as well. It was a flier that they had been given on the day they had been killed. Rias began to explain, "Upon drawing your last breaths, you had a desire so strong that it summoned me to your locations where I then resurrected you two as devils and you were reborn as members of the family of Rias Gremory, the daughter of the Marquis Gremory, a high class devil, as my servant." She told them as she along with all the members of the ORC unfurled a pair of bat like wings. Looking at the boys she simply said, "Welcome to the family

John looked down at his own back to find that he too had the wings, same as everyone else, with curiosity shining in his amber eyes, as did Issei who was shocked at having the proof of the existence of devils shown in front of him and the realization that he was no longer human did not help matters any.

* * *

A couple of days later, John walked into the clubroom, and spotted Akeno sipping some tea that she had made. When she saw him, she waved him over pouring a cup of tea for him as well.

"So John-kun, are you ready to continue our lessons?" Akeno asked him while sipping some of her tea.

"Yes, I saw what my explosive did and that was me just acting on instinct, if I can control that kind of power then I could make it more effective rather than just some one off or fluke." John explained his reasoning for taking the lessons to the beauty before him.

After Rias had finished her introduction of her peerage to John and Issei, he had asked his questions about what he had done to cause his exploding round to become more powerful than it should have been, leading to the group becoming tense, in Issei's case dropping his jaw, at the fact that John was carrying bombs in school.

Rias asked Akeno to test him for his level in demonic power and surprising everyone, he had turned out to have an incredibly massive amount of demonic power that would have put him solidly into the high class if he had been born a devil. Because of this Rias had Akeno teach him how to utilize and control the power that he held and his lessons were starting to bear fruit.

"Alright now can you make that construct that a construct like you made yesterday?" She asked him politely as she wanted him to expand on certain abilities, she had explained multiple times that the limit of demonic power was the quantity of the user and the imagination and desire of the caster.

"Of course." He replied to her request before he clapped his hands together and spread his hands and between them there were strands of electric blue demonic energy strung and intertwined together in a way that was reminiscent of a spiderweb.

"Good." Akeno said in response to his almost effortless creation of a construct of pure demonic energy. This construct held a lot of power in it as she had explained to him that something like this construct only had hope of restraining enemies if it had lots of demonic energy. It was an incredibly simple and versatile ability to have as it could restrain quick enemies like knights and weaker opponents like bishops if one were to take them out fast enough. "Now what I want you to do is add a secondary effect to the web." This was part of learning to master demonic energy. The way she had been taught was to make an object from demonic energy with one purpose, like causing pain, and adding something to enhance the primary effect like lightning or fire.

John started to focus on what he wanted to happen, this exercise required him to multitask. Maintain the form of the web and run this secondary effect through it. After a few seconds the wire began to crackle and flash as small amounts of electricity began to run through the wires. The smell of ozone reached Akeno's nose and she smiled as John was mimicking her own preferred form of magic.

Akeno watched as the wires continued to crackle until the wires began to waver before dispersing in a wave of static electricity that raised the hairs on the back of John's arms.

Akeno kept smiling as he stared at his hands before he moved to try once more. She started speaking before he could, "You're trying too hard John-kun, the demonic energy does not need to be controlled, you only have to desire it and it will happen. If you force it, it makes you split your attention between maintaining the construct and maintaining the secondary effect, overall dropping the effectiveness of the construct." She explained, causing John's face to flush as she had pointed out that what he had been doing had been wrong. She smiled good naturedly, it was times like this that made him think that she was a sweet and kind girl who went out of her way to help him. "You're desire is also the key to using any abilities you will have gained from becoming a devil as well. Here let me show you."

When she said that she formed a ball of demonic energy before the ball split into three pieces, each one changing as she willed it. One piece turned yellow and started crackling showing that it had turned into lightning, another became orange and began wavering like a fire, and the last orb became solid and a whitish blue, letting off a frost to show it had turned into ice. When all three had completed the change another ball of demonic energy took the place of the original and all the other pieces started revolving around the new energy (think something like the Planetary Rasengan).

"See, no effort. Just think what you want to happen and it will happen almost instantly." She explained to him, dispersing the revolving energy and telling him to try again.

Forming the web, he "told" the energy to run electricity through itself, but didn't force it or concentrate. Almost instantly the wire began to crackle and spark but he didn't have to strain like he had. Quickly thinking, he made the wire stop crackling and turn to ice, before switching to fire, to electricity, to fire, to ice, to electricity. So on and so forth he continued that way before Akeno had him stop. "Very good John-kun, you are progressing very well, and that web will make for some interesting times, did you want to tie me up, leave me helpless as you ravished me over and over with no way to stop you?" She said with a devious and seductive smile that left John blushing at the images that she was painting, there was the sadist that he knew her to be.

Neither one noticed that Issei had just walked in or that he had just been thrown back by the nosebleed that had occurred when Akeno had described the things that could be done with the wires.

Akeno reached into the bag that she had and pulled out John's pistol and handed it to him. "Here John-kun, I took the liberty of putting a magic circle on the handle so now when you release demonic power the circle will absorb and transfer the energy into the ammunition."

Grabbing the gun he turned it to the side and saw the small circle, putting the gun into his bag, he turned back to her. "Thanks Akeno that will help. Do you want to continue these lessons?"

"Of course. There is still so much to teach you." She said, for some reason he felt that she meant more than just how to use magic.

With that conversation finished, Issei started coming around. Issei and John were going out later so that the two of them could pass out fliers, like the ones that had been given to them before Yuuma killed them. This was so that the two of them would be able to be summoned to form contracts. Rias had explained that a devil gained power from contracts the value of a contract based on the strength of the desire, and if one gained enough contracts then they could be promoted to mid or high-class devil. They had both handed out their quota of fliers but continued to do so as the more fliers out there the more they could possibly get summoned

Issei had already been summoned once by one of Koneko's usual and from what Issei had said, the guy had been a bit strange but had been an excellent debater and despite the fact that Issei hadn't received the contract, the guy had given him a great review.

However it had also been found that Issei could not even use the summoning circle as his reserves were too small. That had been surprising as he learned later that even children had enough energy to use these circles, poor guy.

Issei had also been attacked by a fallen angel as well and had finally been able to summon his Sacred Gear, which took the form of a red and gold gauntlet on his left arm with a green jewel over the hand.

John had yet to be summoned but was told he would be soon. To be completely honest he was kind of excited about the prospect of doing a contract.

Rias came in and Issei went to follow her, leaving him and Akeno alone once more. Akeno decided to continue the conversation they were having on magic. "So, John-kun, was there any form of demonic power that seemed easier for you to control, these kind of things are important as it can help you further master your abilities."

Thinking to when he was switching between elements on his wire, John felt that it was easier when he was using the lightning and ice elements.

"Yeah, lightning and ice was easy compared to fire." He told her, causing her grin to widen.

"Well that makes this easy for me since I specialize in lightning magic, but for now I want you to work on your elemental manipulations and find anything else that feels easier to use." She told him as she got up to go make some tea but paused before turning back. "Don't forget John-kun that even though you wield large amounts of demonic powers, you still have other attributes that you should not ignore." She said in a serious tone, before continuing to make her tea.

Thinking about that, he knew that he felt stronger than he did when he was still human but he did not know just how much stronger he was now that he was a devil. He had seen Koneko hold back her own strength while in school and realized just how strong the small girl must be in order to have to hold back to keep from hurting someone and he needed to be careful as well because he was not sure how strong he was now.

His thoughts were interrupted when Issei sat down next to him, looking dejected for some reason. "You get chewed out again?" he asked the brown haired boy. Issei had had the same look the night before when Rias had told him to not get too confident and not to pick unnecessary fights.

It was a bit harsh but John agreed, Issei may hold a powerful item that was bound to his soul, but he was still a teenager with no formal combat experience or training like John had, who had been training for years for an inevitable confrontation between himself and highly trained individuals. The kid simply wasn't ready for the bloody and gritty world that involved fighting and killing. Not yet anyway, all it would take is a little push and he was sure Issei would be ready to shine.

Issei hung his head and spoke, "Yeah. I told her about how I helped out a nun find the Church in town and the feeling I got when I got close." He explained an aura of depression appearing suddenly.

John frowned. Wasn't the only church in town the abandoned on the outskirts of Kuoh? "What did she say?" he asked, putting the thoughts of the abandoned church out of mind for now.

"She said that the feeling I got was from being near a place where there was a holy aura, which means enemy territory. John-san, I don't know what to do, I feel like no matter what I do I just piss her off." Issei said, his expression becoming bleak.

John was about to say something before a voice interrupted him. "She's not mad. She's just worried about you, that's all." Akeno said to him surprising them both.

Before they could continue the conversation, Rias opened the door and looked at Issei and John on the couch. "You're still here." She said almost seeming surprised, "I thought you two would have gone home for the day."

Before either could answer Akeno spoke up in a serious voice, "We received a message from the Archduke."

Rias looked interested at this. "The Archduke?" she inquired.

"There's been a Stray Devil causing trouble in town." She explained, catching John's interest seeing as he had heard that term when the Fallen Angel, Dohnaseek had almost killed him and Issei.

Rias went rigid at that, her face smoothing into a look of cold fury. "Call the others, and call the Archduke. Tell him we will take care of it." She ordered before going back into the office.

* * *

The Gremory magic circle appeared in front of an abandoned house as Kiba, who was carrying a European broadsword, was explaining the concepts of Stray Devils to John and Issei, "Strays start out as devil servants, but they rebel against their master, at worst killing them, and run off, becoming strays." Kiba paused for a second looking up at the house before continuing the explanation. "Usually they leave to fulfill their selfish desires and that always ends in ugliness."

When he finished Akeno started to speak while they set off for the house. "The stray has been holed up here in this abandoned house and luring people in to eat them."

Issei looked disgusted and simply said, "Gross."

John looked surprised at the mention of the devil's activities. "How do you cover up something like that?" He asked, and noticed out of the corner of his eyes that Koneko seemed rather…tense, like something about this situation seemed to rile her up and she was holding back to keep from charging in and killing this stray.

"Stray devils are uncommon, very few end up leaving their masters, but when one does and ends up causing a ruckus we have covers ready like cannibal serial killers or something like that for the ones who go out and eat humans." Akeno told John as an explanation and continued, "Most simply hideaway and try to remain undetected as they are still criminals and will be hunted."

With that the conversation ended and they all walked into the entrance of the house and went in. Looking around, John saw that a lot of the furniture in the house was covered in sheets, showing that the house had indeed been left uninhabited for a long while and it made him question whether this stray was actually here or not.

Rias suddenly spoke up, "Issei, John, are either of you familiar with the game of Chess?"

Issei looked confused before he answered, "Yeah, I have but I'm not very good at it." He explained looking embarrassed.

John, though, had his hand to his head as he felt like he had asked that same question once.

* * *

_I was in a small room staring blankly at a wall. The room was not all that impressive, as all it had was a door and a small bed with a chair that the people used when they came to study me._

_The door opened revealing a woman with dark hair and amber eyes, wearing a lab coat that covered her voluptuous body, seeing him she had a small smile, she was the only one who ever smiled at me. Under her arm she carried a board and a small table._

_Putting the table up in front of me, she pulled the chair over, before placing the board on the table. She pulled out a bag of pieces, black and white, and placed them on the board._

_She smiled at me a little and asked, "Are you familiar with the game of Chess?"_

* * *

John snapped out of the memory and realized that everyone was staring at him, some worried and other simply confused. Realizing that he had not answered her he said, "It…sounds familiar, but I don't think I've played." Thinking of that memory he wasn't sure if that was true or not.

Rias simply turned forward and began to explain the game. "There are sixteen pieces in the game; myself, the King. Then there's the Queen, two Knights, two Rooks, two Bishops and then eight Pawns." She finished listing off the pieces, "High-class devils imbue the properties of these pieces into individuals by reincarnating them into devils. We call them Evil Pieces."

"Ok, so you're saying that you assigned us a property of the pieces that you used to reincarnate us?" John asked her to be certain of what she was telling him.

"Pretty much." She said

Issei looked at the two of them, only understanding that he and John had been given properties of chess pieces when they were revived. "Sounds cool." He simply stated, "But why are you telling us this?"

"I want you and John to watch as the others fight tonight." She told them as they continued to look around.

Before they could continue something started to move around, followed by the sound of evil laughter. "What is that disgusting smell?" A soft seductive voice said, "But something also smells sweet. Does it taste sweet or bitter?" With those last words a woman with long dark hair and a pretty face, stepped out from behind one of the multiple pillars. The first thing John noticed, and Issei noticed for completely different reasons, was that she did not have a shirt on, which exposed her breasts to the world.

"What the f-" John started to say.

"I see big boobs!" Issei said, cutting the other guy off, with stars in his eyes.

Rias stepped forward and started speaking. "Stray Devil Visor, You have abandoned your master and run off to fulfill your selfish and lustful desires. This is your warning, leave and return to your master or in the name of the Marquis Gremory, you will die!" She finished the speech.

"I get scare tactics, but was the monologue really necessary?" John asked, drawing a bit of silence from everybody before Visor started speaking again.

"Give it a rest you little slut, you've always had it in for me." She said. John raised an eyebrow, these two knew each other? "You're just jealous because _you're_ breasts will never be as luscious as these!" She accentuated her point by groping herself with a lewd face.

When he saw this, John simply face palmed. "Really!? Who does that when they're about to fight?"

"This is your last warning, return to your master!" Rias said as Visor continued to ignore her.

Issei watched this with a semi-serious look on his face. "So this is a stray devil?" he said before taking on a lecherous look, "She looks like a soft-core porn star!" He said, drawing another face palm from John. Screw what he thought earlier. If there was anything that was female and was attractive in any way on the opposing side the kid would never shine in battle!

"Let me show you what I'm made of then!" Visor said revealing the rest of her body, showing that it looked something like a bull and centaur mixed together. John and Issei both noticed that there were magic circles that appeared over her stiffening nipples. Suddenly a pair of sickly yellow beams shot from Visor's breast.

Everybody moved out of the way of the beams, Issei was grabbed by Rias, and the beams struck the wall behind them, melting the wall.

When Issei saw this he said, "I never thought I'd say this but I don't want to be in _this_ porno!"

After he was out of the way, John saw the destruction that was caused before he finally just snapped. "Seriously!? Laser-acid Boobs!? Who does this!?" He started to rant, "What's next? Is some jackass going to invent a spell that strips a woman of their clothes!?" He paused a second before looking at Issei with a deadpan expression, before he just threw his hands into the air. "Screw it! Rias, please just end this already so I can go home and wipe this from my memory!"

Looking at the pleading boy, Rias just shrugged before saying, "Kiba!"

In response Kiba drew his sword, before vanishing in a burst of speed. John could barely keep up with Kiba's speed and Issei couldn't keep up at all. Not even a second later, Kiba reappeared in front of the stray devil, Cutting her lower body's arms clean off in a couple of swings of his sword.

Rias took the time to explain, "Kiba is a **[Knight]**, meaning his attribute is speed and his main weapon is a sword. Koneko!" She called out after her explanation. "John pay attention to her." Guessing that this was relevant to him, he paid attention to his underclassmen.

The petite girl walked forward past Kiba, catching Visor's attention. Visor moved forward rather quickly for a creature her size, and opened a second mouth on her lower body, John chose to ignore this for the sake of his sanity; it was like every bad stereotype about gold diggers he had heard was given form through Visor. When the mouth closed around Koneko, John resisted the urge to jump forward and try to save Koneko.

The one thing that stopped him and Issei was Rias' voice as she continued to explain. "Don't worry, she's fine." Her words were proven true when the mouth that had closed around the girl were forced open, revealing Koneko with her uniform in tatters, revealing parts of her bright yellow underwear. "Koneko is a **[Rook]**, meaning she has a strong defense and is incredibly strong, something like that won't even scratch her. That is you're piece John"

After she said that Koneko just said "See ya later." In a monotone voice before turning and landing a powerful hook that sent Visor flying through one of the pillars in the room and to the other side. Issei, seeing this decided that he would avoid pissing her off in the future.

When she walked over, John removed his jacket and put it around her to cover the tears in her uniform. Konekos emotionless mask slipped as she blushed a little and looked away, realizing that she had just been seen in less than decent attire by John. John smiled and petted her head, causing her to let out a small purr at the bliss that she felt from a small head pet.

Rias smiled as she felt once again that John would fit well with her peerage. Looking at the last member of her peerage that had yet to show her capabilities, she said, "Akeno, you're up."

Akeno walked up to Visor who was struggling to get up, with a scary smile that sent a shiver of fear through John's spine and, to his shame, a little arousal. "Oh is it my turn? Oh I do love these games!" She finished the statement with her hands crackling with a little lightning.

At that moment he two arms that had been separated from Visor's body sprang to life, one launched itself at Rias, the other towards Akeno who seemed to be preoccupied by what she was about to do to the stray. John and Issei moved at the same time, Issei cried "**Sacred Gear!**" causing the red and gold gauntlet to appear on his left hand, and proceeded to move Rias out of the way and smashing the severed arm away from them.

John clapped his hands together causing a small burst of flames to appear and separated his hands, sending strings of demonic energy to the arm that was about to attack Akeno. When the arm was caught John pulled it back towards himself and imagining the strength needed to send a creature the size of Vizor across the room like Koneko had, John brought his fist down on the severed appendage, smashing it into the ground , forming a large crater with a multitude of spiderweb cracks that spread from the point of impact

Rias looked at the two, in shock before smiling at the two. Getting up she said, "Thanks you two." She walked past Issei and called loudly, "Akeno finish her off!"

Looking down at the struggling woman she started speaking, "I've got some news for you, you're not the only one that likes to play rough!" she ended that sentence by sensually licking her lips, and she felt her chest getting tighter with excitement. Visor looked at the girl defiantly, exciting Akeno even more. "Oh good, you're still ready for more, which means I get to play some more!" With that she started to hit the stray with many lightning bolts, her face flushed and John saw her nipples under her shirt.

While this was going on, Rias continued her explanation, "Akeno is my **[Queen]**, she is a combination of the knight, rook, and bishop. She specializes in using magic, but if pushed she could keep up with Koneko and Kiba." While she said this Akeno never stopped her assault and, from what John could tell, was heavily aroused at this point. John was not a pervert, he just knew when somebody was starting to get randy, this had helped him multiple times as a child to escape from people who would have abused him in the streets. "Also," Rias started to say, "She is a real sadist."

"I freaking knew it." John mumbled, not seeing Rias' grin.

Walking forward, Rias spoke, "Akeno, she's had enough!" Causing Akeno to stop with a pout that John thought was adorable even though he knew that it was because Akeno was really getting into her activity.

"Ahh, already?" She whined like a child whose fun had been cut short. She looked down at the twitching form of Visor before shrugging and saying, "Oh well." Before walking towards the group and sidling next to John, who was quite nervous to have her near him after witnessing her S-mode, something she did not miss.

Koneko merely glared at her before moving closer to John. Even though Akeno smiled, John could tell that there was tension between them, and he was right in the middle. Fuck!

Rias walked forward before stopping in front of Visor. "Any last words?"

Visor looked at her and said defiantly, "Go to Hell!"

"Very well then." Then she crossed her arms and a magic circle appeared in front of her. From the circle black and red energy sprung towards Visor, engulfing her and after a few seconds, it dissipated revealing nothing to be left of the stray that had been utterly decimated. Turning around, she looked at her peerage. "We're done here. Let's go home."

Everyone agreed and as she walked past them, Issei spoke up. "Wait."

Rias looked at him, "Yes?"

What piece am I? You told John-san that he was a **[Rook]** but you didn't say anything about me. Am I a **[Knight] **or a **[Bishop]**?"

She smiled. "No you're a **[pawn]**." She told him, ruining his hopes of being able to move fast or cast magic.

"What?" Issei said in despair as they all left via a teleportation circle.

* * *

The next evening John was reading a book on what was left of the 72 Pillar houses. He found something interesting about Rias' ability. The "Power of Destruction", a devil power that was capable of damaging things on a molecular level. Dangerous and very lethal if one was hit by one of the bolts. The interesting thing about it though was not its function, but that the power was not even part of the Gremory bloodline, no it belonged to the Bael family, which meant that one of her parents, presumably her mother, had married in from the Bael clan, this combined with the Gremory's exceptional control of their magic made Rias a dangerous individual in the battlefield.

So Rias was a descendant of two high-class families, how interesting his King was.

All around the room the others simply relaxed, the only one who was missing was Issei, who had gone out for another contract. Koneko was on the other couch eating her sweets having just come back from her job, Kiba was on the couch next to her looking over his sword, Rias was at her desk doing paperwork, and Akeno was carrying tea to Rias.

She grabbed the tea and was about to bring it to her lips for a drink, but she stopped suddenly, the cup slipping from her fingers and smashing on the floor. Her eyes were wide with panic as she said something that alerted everyone to what was wrong.

"Issei is in danger!"

Four words.

Four words and the calm and relaxed atmosphere was nothing but a fleeting memory.

John's eyes narrowed and closed his book. Putting it down, he quickly pulled his gun and several magazines of ammo and slipping them into his jacket. Everyone moved towards the circle, ready to save their fellow peerage member.

**XChapter EndX**

**John's harem will be: Akeno, Koneko, Kuroka, Xenovia, Yubelluna, Grayfia, Serafall, Sona, Katarea, Kalawarner, Azazel (fem.) and Isabela.**

**Yeah John's reaction to Visor were a bit out of character, but I based John's reactions off someone who had never never been in that kind of situation before, with all the perverted antics, so for a guy who was used to serious situations being thrown into something like that, well you know.**


	4. Chapter 4: The Peerage Strikes Back

Disclaimer: I don't own Highschool DxD, and I am not making money off of this. Also ahead of time I also don't own Naruto, you'll understand later.

Just for today since I've made you wait so long, Double update. Thank you for reading!

Super Soldier of Gremory

Chapter 4: The Peerage Strikes Back

_After they had left I got out of the cart, finding some kind of card, and began to move down the Hall._

_At the end I found a lift and went in, looking at the buttons and pressing the one that said 'lobby'. As soon as I did, a screen popped up and asked for an access card and I used the one I had found on the cart. When the doors closed, the machine started to move up, and even though I thought I could relax I still felt tense, as though I was still not out of trouble._

_Finally the doors opened and I came into a room that looked like some kind of reception and across the room there was a door, and beyond that there was nothing but rain and darkness._

_Moving forward I headed for the door, ready to leave this strange place. When I was almost there, a hand clamped over my shoulder and spun me around._

_Looking up I saw a large man, not very muscular but fat. He looked at me with a hard look and growled, "Where do you think you're going?" menacingly._

_Before I could even say anything an alarm blared out. "SUBJECT SEVEN HAS ESCAPED! IT IS EXTREMELY DANGEROUS! REPEAT, SUBJECT SEVEN HAS ESCAPED!_

* * *

It was several minutes later when everyone was able to teleport to Issei's location. They all saw as a teenager in white priest's clothes and a bruise on his face as if someone had hit him, carrying a gun jumped forward with a sword of light and was about to cut Issei into bits.

Seeing this, John and Kiba moved at the same time, with Kiba ahead of John as he moved faster. Kiba clashed with the man, holding his sword back easily and John went below Kiba and put the muzzle of his gun under the man's chin already squeezing the trigger.

The man saw what was about to happen and pushed Kiba away, and threw his head back as the bullet tore through where his head had been with a bang, the teenager narrowly avoiding having his brain coat the ceiling of the house. After the bullet missed, the man did a back flip away from them.

John wanted a little more room between himself and the, obviously, crazy man, so he quickly aimed and fired a couple more rounds at the man, which were dodged swiftly.

Finally with an acceptable distance between them, John kept his pistol trained on the teenager and looked around seeing a blonde girl in a nun outfit. The front had been ripped by someone, and despite knowing the kind of animal Issei was, John was very sure he would not ever try and force himself on a girl, which left John sneering at the deranged white haired man. Aside from that he also saw a man, presumably the owner of the house, crucified to the wall, showing him to have been brutally murdered and his blood running down the wall, still fresh.

Akeno came through the teleportation circle and looked around taking note of the murdered contractor. "Oh no, this is a terrible mess."

Keneko came through after her and simply said, "An Exorcist."

Issei looked at them all with a relieved expression. "You guys really came."

"Well well well, looks like some more shitty devils showed up, but it doesn't matter! You'll all die like every other shitty devil!" The insane priest proclaimed.

"You're finished here. Sorry to disappoint but he's with us." Kiba said to the teenager never dropping the black sword that he had used against him.

"Oh believe me, I'm far from disappointed, but tell me, what's the deal? You the pitcher and he the catcher, or are you two looking for a little brother?" He asked the **[Knight]** who was still ready for anything.

John spoke up, still keeping his gun trained on the man. "You know, I've never met such a shitty priest before." He said, turning the teen's insult against him.

The priest turned towards the gun toting **[Rook]** with a snarl. "What's that faggot?!" he said.

"I'm straight." John said not even answering the teens question, pissing him off.

Akeno chose that moment to speak up, "This guy's a real piece of work." John would have looked to her but he would rather not take his eyes off the guy.

"And you are a hot piece of-" The teenager began to say.

_Bang bang._

But he was unable to finish as he dodged a couple bullets, courtesy of John, who had a neutral look but was pissed at the guy who tried to make a pass at Akeno. The crazy priest looked at the **[Rook]** with deranged look on his face. "Oh, did I hit a nerve. I'm just saying that there's nothing that I lust after more than a sexy devil bitch!"

John looked like he was about to fire again before somebody spoke up. "If you want it come and get it, but I doubt you could take it." Rias said while firing a bolt of her Power of Destruction. The priest moved out of the way of the attack. "Nobody hurts my servants and gets away with it."

"Well look around because I'm pretty sure I hurt him and I'm getting away with it!" The priest said insanely. Rias ignored the boy in favor of walking over to Issei.

Kneeling down to the boy's level she asked if he was okay.

"I'm fine Buchou. Thanks for coming to help." He said, John knew by the boys tone that he was also sorry, probably feeling like he was useless, John knew the feeling, he had felt it when Dohnaseek was about to kill them.

"What's with all the drama, you shitty devils? If you are all really sorry for anything you'll let me cut you down, especially you, shitty gun devil!" The priest interrupted, like a jackass.

"Who is this poor excuse for a priest?" John asked, still with his gun trained on the priest while his other hand was out of sight of the priest, glowing slightly in preparation of a spell.

The priest grinned in a twisted way before saying, "I'm Freed Selzan, a boy priest."

John raised an eyebrow before replying, "Oh, a Catholic, did you go rogue after the father became interested in other boys?"

Freed paused for a second before he shot forward, screaming, "You shitty devils!" and raising his sword of light to slice John apart.

John aimed the gun and fired, hitting the hilt of the sword and sending it into the air and shot his other hand forward unleashing a wave of demonic energy infused with a current of lightning to paralyze the teenager. When this exchange was over everyone looking at him in surprise, even Koneko had her eyebrow raised curiously.

He suddenly felt a chill, like the gaze of death itself was upon him, he knew this feeling and responded accordingly. "Rias, There are fallen angels coming this way fast."

Rias acknowledged what he said and spoke one last time, "Well Priest-san, we must be going now."

Freed tried to get up, but the current of electricity running through his body right then made movement a lot harder than normal. "You shitty devils."

Issei tried to protest against the notion, "No, Buchou we have to take Asia-chan, she's not safe here." John figured that was the name of the girl and agreed that it was best that they take the girl as the priest looked to almost have raped her.

"We can't, I can only transport members of my family or peerage and she is neither one." Rias explained rationally.

Leaving the girl left a foul taste in John's mouth, even though he would normally run in a situation like this, he would have said to fight the incoming enemies but with one non combatant and an injured ally along with an unknown number of hostiles with unknown skill levels, they had no choice to run from this fight. He felt rather pissed-.

Wait why was he so angry tonight?

Before he could contemplate it any further Rias made the Gremory families transport circle and they were all suddenly back in the clubroom. Issei, bloodied and beaten, got up and begged Rias to send him back to get Asia.

John had to admit that the kid had spirit, but in his current condition, he would not get far and would not last long in a straight up fight. And even though it was harsh he understood Rias' next actions.

She slapped Issei in the face and spoke to him in a stern voice which implied no arguments, "Enough, forget about that girl. There is nothing you can do now even if you stayed."

Issei stared at her, hurt in his eyes before looking down and turning away, "I understand Buchou." He said before walking out of the room to go home.

Koneko and Kiba quickly used the teleportation circle to return to their apartments.

Now the only ones left were Rias, Akeno and John. Rias looked tired and troubled as she walked over to her desk and pulled out a piece of paper and began writing. Akeno left the room, John guessed to make a pot of tea as she always did when Rias was doing her paperwork.

John began to think back on the unusual anger he had been feeling for the last week since becoming a devil. Normally he would be cool headed as years of being on the run had taught him, but since he became a devil, he found himself being more…expressive? He did not know what was going on with him so he figured he would have to speak with his **[King]**.

Rias looked up when she heard someone step forward, and saw John looking at her, obviously wanting to know something. "Yes John-san, is there something you need?" She asked him in a tone that told him he could ask anything.

John thought for a second on how to ask his question before he settled on the direct route. "Buchou…Rias, ever since you reincarnated me into a devil, I've been more…open than I am normally comfortable with." He told her, she noted that he used her name rather than her title, she rather liked that he referred to her as an individual.

Rias had an idea what he was talking about and decided to let him explain to her what he was feeling before telling him her prognosis. "What do you mean by 'open' John-san?" She queried, prompting him to continue.

"Tonight, when that priest was insulting us and making passes at Akeno, I felt angry, and normally I would be able to control myself better than to try and put a bullet in him or insult him right back and wanting him to feel embarrassed. I don't normally do those things as I've learned over the years to keep a cool head." He explained to her in a way that conveyed that he was not used to talking about problems with someone. He continued before she could say anything, "And it's not just tonight, last week when I first became a devil I actually started to interact more with people even if it was just with Koneko and Akeno and I had bouts of anger for no reason."

Sensing that he was done with his explanation Rias started to speak, "Well, I'll use an explanation about us devils to explain what your problem is. You see, devils are beings of desire and emotion, which means we're more open and expressive than humans are, like the Gremory clan is more caring for our servants than most devils would normally be. The expression is tied into a specific Sin, using the Gremory's as an example again, our affection is tied into our greed, we reincarnated them and while other groups would trade a weaker member without a second thought, we won't no matter who or how much we are offered even if it is not out of genuine affection.

"Now the anger and the desire to see someone embarrassed for insulting you or your friends are a mix of two sins. You most likely embody the sins of wrath and pride, however if you also feel anger at someone making passes at Akeno like you said, then there is probably some lust mixed in as well." She finished her explanation.

John started to think until Akeno came in with the tea a teasing smile and a very light blush on her face. John turned away from her before asking something. "Would the mix of these sins be a bad thing or do they balance each other out?"

Rias thought on that for a second before she spoke once more. "Well I think it works in your favor, since if you embodied only wrath, you would be a rampaging berserker at the slightest provocation if you had no release, or if you only embodied pride you would be extremely arrogant. If it was just lust…" She did not finish as she let him figure it out himself.

"Issei?" He said

"Issei." She replied. "With the mix of your sins as well as your developed self control, you should have no problems other than being more 'open' as you put it." She finished the explanation with that.

Nodding, John said, "Thank you Rias, you put some worries of mine to rest."

As he was about to head towards the teleportation circle, Rias spoke once more. "John?" She asked and he paused and turned to look at her curiously, "Why have you had to develop the kind of self discipline necessary to resist your sins so young?" she questioned seriously with a hard look in her eyes.

Pausing, he turned away and his hair covered his eyes and he finally spoke, "I'd rather not talk about it."

Rias looked at him for a second before she sighed. "Very well, you may go." He started walking away before she spoke one last time. "Just know, you can tell me anything if there are any problems."

He turned back to her and gave a small smile. "Thanks for that." And then he activated the circle leaving for his home.

* * *

The next day was Saturday, which meant no school. John woke early on Saturdays in order to make the most of the day, even though it was tougher now that his devil physiology worked against him during the daytime.

So there he was, slowly waking up instead of being awake immediately, and barely noticing the warm body next to his having grown used to it over the last week.

Akeno normally snuck into his room for the last week in order to "bond with her new peerage mate" as she had said when he asked her why she was back in his bed the morning after he accepted being a member of the ORC.

However unlike him she was very much awake as opposed to his groggy behavior and had a teasing smile on her face as she stared at his dead tired eyes when he turned to look at her.

With his mind slowly rebooting, he simply greeted her. "Morning Akeno." He said tiredly.

She smiled serenely at his tired greeting. "Good morning John-kun." She chirped happily, raising herself and rolling onto him so that she was positioned above him, her large, bra-clad, breasts lightly pressing against his chest as she looked down at him with a predatory look.

When he was human he would have, with moderate difficulty, been able to ignore it as he was not a slave to his hormones like many of his fellow males, with anyone else it would have been easy but Akeno was in a league all her own. However since he partly embodied the sin of lust, he was more in tune with his desires and reacted with a slight blush at the sight of the black haired beauty before him with the sun shining on her flawless skin.

He still had his self control, and managed to force his flush down and spoke to the girl. "I'm doing rather well, thank you. What do you have planned for breakfast?" Even with the drop dead gorgeous woman lying on top of him, he was capable of higher thought processes unlike a large percentage of the world's population of males.

The girl pouted, as she did every time she failed to get a large reaction out of him for the last week that she had visited his bed every morning. She rather liked that he did not act like a stuttering mess and was capable of having an intelligent conversation with her, but she rather liked to see men, and the occasional girl, squirm when she teased them.

John on the other hand had barely reacted to her teasing outside of some light blushing and a rather large coughing fit, if she was lucky. She knew he found her attractive as the evidence she was currently seated on pointed out, but she was still disappointed at his lack of embarrassment and attempts to hide his "Little" problem.

"I was thinking of a western style breakfast today. Does that sound good to you?" She asked.

"That is okay with me. Is there anything you need in particular?" He asked her as he was almost over his morning grogginess.

She leaned forward to whisper in his ear "A back rub would be nice. The girls do put a lot of stress on my shoulders." He felt her chest shift against his, letting him know that she had slipped her arm under them to make her point.

He looked at her with a blank expression before he spoke. "I meant to make breakfast."

She once more pouted at the lack of response on his part before saying, "Nothing outside some eggs, milk and flour." Answering his question without anymore of her teasing.

"I'll take the shower first today, I won't be long." He told her as he rolled over and released her gently so as not to jar her suddenly before he got up and headed to the bathroom, removing his tank-top on the way.

Akeno saw him remove the shirt and licked her lips at the unfettered view of his back. He was not small like Kiba, but neither was he large like a body builder. The smooth lines across his back outlining muscles that had been crafted from long hours doing all kinds of exercises and training, and arms that looked to be like steel cables covered in flesh ready to latch onto something or someone and hold it in an inescapable vice.

The thought of those arms wrapped around her as he ravished her over and over...

But past the appealing show she was enjoying, she saw the scars across his back, she had seen them before all over his body when she had healed him after he and Issei were attacked by the Fallen angel. Some she could tell were from knives. The long thin lines were small and precise, meant more to cause pain than to kill, others looked like stab wounds only an inch or so from lethal places. However what had caught her eye was the mark where his shoulder blade would be, a mark that looked to be two inches in diameter that looked like the skin had been torn open by a small object.

She knew even without ever having handled anything close to one, this was a gunshot wound. But he had full functionality in his right arm, why was he capable of using it while he was still human, the shot should have destroyed his shoulder blade, ruining any chance of ever having full use of the limb again?

By the time she stopped thinking; John had entered the bathroom and closed the door. Getting up and putting her clothes on, she thought about the way she interacted with John.

Normally all boys basically were the same to her, they were all easy to tease and wind up. The day she had seen John Freemont for the first time was the beginning of her third year and what had caught her attention was that unlike most people who were in a new situation, he did not try to interact with anyone or try to make friends.

Before he was turned into a devil he had been stoic, not to the point of Koneko but he was capable of keeping a hold on his emotions. She reached the kitchenette and reached into the pantry for flour and baking powder and placed them on the counter while getting some milk and eggs from the fridge as well as a pack of bacon.

She started to mix the eggs and milk with the flour together and set the bacon to start cooking, continuing to think of the mystery that was her king's new **[Rook]**. Most new devils were normally swamped with their more intense emotions and were somewhat emotional, Rias had a talent for picking exceptions to this generalization. But John Freemont was different, he had admitted to being more open with his emotions, like many devils, but he displayed emotions at the level of the average human. She blushed a little remembering how he admitted to being angered at the pass that the Stray Exorcist made last night.

She poured the batter she had made from the eggs, milk and flour into a pan that she placed on the stove to make pancakes. John's abilities before and since his transformation spoke of training, no normal human was capable of driving off a supernatural being without high levels of training, and the fact that John had done it with nothing more than a pistol and some specialized homemade ammunition spoke wonders of his abilities. There was no doubt that he would be powerful in the future, she just wondered what would happen if she acted on the crush that she had for him.

Although Akeno did not admit it, she was indeed attracted to John Freemont. He was unlike any of the other boys in the school who all idolized her for being one of the Two Great Onee-sama's, to him she was just a girl he went to school with and was in the same club as now. He was also very good at putting people, Issei, into humorous positions that appealed to her S-side.

John probably didn't even realize that the first time he woke to find her in his bed was not the first time they had met. He had been walking down the hall and she as well in the opposite direction. Ultimately they ran into each other and she had been driven to the ground and instead of getting on his hands and knees and begging for forgiveness like any of the other boys in the school would have, he simply reached down and helped her up. He then apologized and simply went on his way.

After that Akeno had had her imps keep an eye on him in secret. She had learned that he was reclusive, that even among a group of people, he would not interact with anyone and simply, impossibly, slipped into the background, unnoticed yet still seen, just overshadowed by those who were considered to be more prominent.

As she set the plates of pancakes on the table with syrup and cutlery, it was then that John walked in his dark hair still wet from the shower.

"Oh breakfast is ready John-kun." She told him as she moved towards the table. She was stopped however when she felt a hand on her shoulder.

She turned around and heard John speak, "Akeno, why don't you go take a bath? I'll wait for you to finish and we can eat breakfast together."

Looking at him she simply shook her head before replying to his suggestion. "Don't worry, I'll take a bath at the club room, I don't want the food to get cold John-kun"

He looked at her before nodding he went to the table before pulling out her chair for her before he went to his own and they began to eat in silence.

It was not long before Akeno decided to speak about what happened the previous night. "So what did you think of the stray exorcist last night?" She asked wanting to get his opinion on their enemy.

John took a bite of the pancake that she made and thought over the events of the previous night before he finally spoke. "He was obviously skilled, from the way that he was unscathed aside from the bruise on his face I would say he tore Issei apart when Issei had the drop on him."

Akeno gave him a look that told him that she had noticed the same thing, it was hard for someone to pay attention to an enemy when they busy assaulting someone, so Issei probably had hit him while his back had been turned.

"In addition to his skills, he is also clearly batshit crazy which is both a boon and a liability in a fight." He told her and went back to eating.

"And what about your performance?" she asked him.

"I let my emotions control me and acted on anger and annoyance that I normally wouldn't, on top of that I let pride get in the way and focused more on embarrassing the stray exorcist rather than killing him like I should have." He said pointing out his mistakes from the previous night.

The fact that he casually stated that he should have killed a person like he had just done was surprising to her, "You would have killed him had you not been distracted by your pride?"

"Only after I had extracted any useful information out of him." He told her, "Which considering how crazy he is either would not have worked or the ones he is working with don't tell him anything."

Akeno watched him for a second before taking another bite of her pancakes and asked, "You've done something like that before haven't you?" She had to know for curiosity's sake in order to learn about the **[Rook]**.

Looking at the girl he decided to answer, "A few times, yes."

"Why?"

Giving her a level look, he sighed. "I don't like to talk about it, but before I came to Japan I had some people who were after me." He told her and took a bite before continuing. "When I was younger I would move all over the place and people suddenly showed up and started following me, I would take them down and move on. The few times that I left any alive I would try to find out who they were; they would choke on some cyanide before I found out anything useful.

Akeno looked at him in shock, not that he had killed people, anyone capable of driving off a Fallen Angel and staring down stray exorcists was someone who was very familiar with death, she just had not realized the circumstances that led him to that.

"Do you know who this organization is?" she asked as Rias would want to know about this.

John looked at her with a hint of amusement on his normally blank face. "I wouldn't be telling you if I did not think you were going to tell Rias about this, but no I don't know who they are."

"That's a shame then." Akeno said as she took a bite out of her breakfast

* * *

After breakfast had been eaten, Akeno had left in order to go talk with Rias about finding any information on the group. It was not something he usually did but he had no choice, he had been trying to find information on them for years with no luck, it was only by chance that the man who had revealed it was arrogant enough to speak of the people he worked for before he died. Now that he was a devil in the service of Rias, who by her own admission was very caring of her servants, he most likely had access through her to a very large information network that could help him learn more about the group.

John felt tired as the sun overhead bore down on him as he was walking into the park. He was wearing a light jacket with a hood that hid his gun and a bandoleer with some magazines on his lower back over a red shirt with a skull on the front as well as a pair of jeans and sneakers. He had needed a walk to think of ways to test his strength and durability, before he was made into a devil he had been an active person who worked out every day, he was strong with his max on bench press being a little over two hundred pounds and could run one hundred yards in thirteen seconds. With his transformation he could easily max out at two hundred tons if his imagination was strong enough. Maybe he could spar with Koneko to get an idea of how **[Rooks]** fought some time he hadn't really spoken to her in a while.

He was snapped out of those thoughts when he recognized the feeling of a Fallen Angel being nearby. He slipped into what he had dubbed his combat state of mind; it was this state that had kept him alive over the years, his ability to seamlessly slip into a state of mind where he could remain calm, most of the time, and analyze a situation and opponent. He reached into his jacket and pulled out his gun with one hand while the other reached for the ammo on the bandoleer before inserting the magazine and cocking the gun.

He moved deeper into the park while sticking to the trees for cover, and before long he reached an area with a pond surrounded by columns with a woman wearing leather straps that revealed a lot of skin with short hair, black wings coming out of her back and in her hand was a spear of light completely relaxed as if she felt there was nothing that was a threat to her. The woman looked towards the other side and when John looked he saw Issei wearing a white short sleeved shirt over a red t-shirt with a pair of jeans and white shoes, standing in front of the girl from the previous night who wore a white nun's habit.

John watched as Issei activated his [Sacred Gear], the red gauntlet appearing on his hand in a flash of green light, the green jewel shining in the sun. The Fallen angel took one look at the item before she started laughing, her voice carrying over to John's location. "That's it, a simple [Twice-Critical] is what you had. Well I can't say I'm surprised you came up short as usual." She said to him in a condescending voice.

Issei looked confused at the term she had used. "A twice what?" He asked her.

"It's also called a Dragon's Hand. That thing just doubles your power for a short time, You may as well be trying to fight me with a toy." She said, the superiority that she said it with all but conveying that she really did not see Issei as a threat.

John knew Issei was disappointed in the lack of anything useful from his [Sacred Gear], and the woman could sense his doubt and played further on his insecurities, "Word was that your were something to look out for, that your [Sacred Gear] was a force to be reckoned with," She told him, when Issei heard that he looked surprised, seeing as he felt that it had been some kind of screw up. "That was why I put up that stupid little girl act! _Issei, please be my boyfriend!_" She said in a different voice, John realized that it must have been the voice she used when she was in disguise.

If he wasn't so pissed at the way the woman was taunting his clubmate, he would have been impressed by the psychological warfare the woman was playing. John pushed the anger down before he charged in without a strategy.

"Despite how ridiculous it was, you brought it!" She continued to taunt him and Issei looked both depressed and pissed.

"Just shut up and fight!" He yelled at her getting himself in a ready stance.

"You're delusional if you think you can take me on." She screeched, her features turning a bit on the feral side. "I suggest you pick up what's left of your dignity and go home." She told him in a superior tone.

"That's not going to happen!" Issei declared to his ex, "If I can't take care of my friends then what good am I?" John felt himself liking the kid more and more, a pervert and a weakling he may be, but once he set his mind on something nothing, come hell or high-water, would stop him, that kind of attitude would make him strong. Then he said to his Sacred Gear, "Come on Gear, let's do this!"

The Sacred gear, as if responding to Issei's determination roared out a single word, "**[BOOST!]**"

John poured demonic energy into his gun ready to go.

He didn't have to wait long, just then Raynare readied her weapon and was about to let it fly when John aimed at the spear and fired his demonically augmented ammo. The round tore through the air, impacting the spear and shattering it into pieces. Unlike the first time he did this with Dohnaseek, he was more focused and not running on instinct and had a circle that focused the energy into the bullets, so the demonic energy was more focused than it was the first time.

Raynare looked at her hand where her spear had shattered, then she looked at the source of the shot and saw someone that made her see red with rage. "You!" She screeched at the calm dark haired boy who she had killed along with Issei the previous week.

"So you remember me?" He asked in a tone of voice that showed he really didn't care about her answer. He looked at her hair and continued, "Did you do something with your hair? I like it, it makes you look like less of a slut." He asked her almost conversationally, like he wasn't pissing off a woman who had ended his life once already.

Raynare was pissed off enough to launch a salvo of light spears at the gun-wielder with a scream of rage.

John knew that there were too many for him to shoot down so he extended his hand and infused his Demonic energy into the water and made it rise up to block all the spears, after that he froze the water and clenched his hand shattering the ice into large pieces that rapidly extended towards the Fallen Angel.

Raynare flew out of the way to the other side of the pond while John moved along the pond towards Issei and the blonde nun.

When he reached them he raised more water blocking more spears and repeating the process from a few seconds earlier. When he was sure that she was distracted, John raised some of the water over himself, Issei and the nun and froze it all, creating a dome shield.

With that taken care of he turned to the two bewildered members of their group who were surprised that he had shown up. "John-san? What are you doing here?" Issei asked the [**Rook**] who unexpectedly, though not unwelcome, had arrived.

"I was in the area and sensed the Fallen Angel. I arrived to hear most of the conversation, and about your Sacred Gear." As he fined there were several violet flashes outside the dome but the ice held with no apparent difficulties.

Issei looked depressed about his Sacred Gear. "Yeah, all this time I thought it was awesome but it was just a piece of scrap no one takes seriously." He said in a downtrodden manner.

John put his hand on Issei's shoulder and gave a wicked smile. "Remember, what she said. It doubles your power." He told him saying the words the Fallen Angel had said earlier.

Issei looked a John as if he was stupid. "Yeah but even with my power doubled she would have trashed me." He said showing how little confidence he had that he could win.

"Exactly, if you only double your power _once_." John told him like some kind of revelation. "I didn't hear her say that it couldn't do it more than once." He said

As if responding to John's statement, the Sacred Gear cried out "**[BOOST!]**"

Three pairs looked down at the gauntlet, one with a feral gleam in his eye, one with a mystified look in her eyes and one surprised pair.

Nodding John started speaking once more, "Alright, here's the plan. I'll distract her for as long as necessary while you keep doubling your power until you feel like you can bring her down in one blow." John told him, the two locking eyes, both silently agreeing on the plan.

Issei looked at the nun and said in a determined voice, "Don't worry Asia, we'll protect you!"

The girl looked at the pair of devils as they prepared to fight the Fallen Angel that seemed to hate them both. "Okay Issei, John-san." She said in a voice that conveyed the amount of faith she had in the two at that very moment.

When the next flash ended, John changed the dome and made it extend dozens of ice spikes going in all directions. John turned the Ice brittle and jumped through and heard the sound of a surprised shout and turned quickly and aimed the gun at the dark haired woman who had barely avoided the spikes when they extended out, letting off a couple of demonic energy enhanced bullets trying to bring her down.

Raynare managed to avoid both shots and dive bombed John, letting loose another salvo of light spears to which John raised the water to block the spear before once again freezing the water, only this time he grabbed the ice and effortlessly lifted it over his head before he tossed it as hard as he could at the Fallen Angel.

Raynare barely dodged the chunk of ice and saw it smash against one of the pillars surrounding the pond, reducing it into rubble. That showed that he had the strength of a [**Rook**] but he had the magical capabilities of a [**Bishop**] as well, neither option was good and it would be worse if this boy turned out to be a [**Queen**].

While she was flying around John infused his fist with wind and charged towards her and she did the same. Right when the two beings were about to meet, John went low and smashed his fist into the pond below him, creating a wall of water that he instantly froze. Unfurling his bat like wings he launched himself up, he was not capable of sustained flight yet but he could still go up for short periods of time, all the while charging large amounts of demonic energy into his weapon.

When he reached the top of the wall, he saw that the Fallen Angel had done the same as he did. Her eyes widened when he pointed the gun at her and squeezed the trigger.

The bullet that launched from the gun was not so much a shot as it was a beam of concentrated demonic energy, if it had connected with her body would have caused massive injury, but she had managed to raise a spear of light, much wider than the previous ones, and used it as an improvised shield, the shot still launched her back quite a ways.

John landed on top of the ice wall and watched as the woman slowly got up, she wasn't hurt, but she was shaken.

Right when he was about to go in for another round he saw a blur heading right for the Fallen Angel, Issei finally came out. Not wasting any time he loaded his hand with a concentrated crackling orb of blue demonic energy and launched himself at the woman as fast as his strength would let him.

Raynare saw the two devils coming for her and unleashed a barrage of spears of light at the two but to no avail. Issei dodged all of the spears with a speed she was certain he did not have before and the other devil simply charged through the barrage with no damage at all.

In no time the two devils were upon her and each thrust their hands out, intent on ending the fight then and there.

As she closed her eyes readying herself for the pain she was absolutely certain she was about to feel she heard a voice that held the power of a King.

"Stop." Was the simple command in a hard feminine voice.

Raynare waited one second, then two before cracking open her eyes to see that both of the attacks that had been about to hit her were less than a couple of inches away from her face.

She jumped away from them and looked at the one who had stopped these two monsters. She turned out to be a crimson haired woman with large breasts, wearing a white school uniform with a corset emphasizing her bust and a short skirt showing off her legs, standing next to the Nun, Asia, outside the crumbling ice fortress.

John and Issei looked at each other and backed towards their king, never revealing their backs and ready for any aggression on the Fallen Angel's part.

The crimson haired woman gave Raynare a hard stare, daring her to attack the two devils who she had under her command. "Would you mind telling me why you were attacking members of my family in _my_ territory for the second time in a week?" She said in a way that told Raynare that if the woman did not like her answer her life expectancy would drop dramatically.

Swallowing, Raynare quickly straightened her back and adopted a cocky attitude, it would not do to show weakness to the low class scum. "I simply came to pick up my groups little runaway." She said as she pointed towards the nun standing beside the Gremory heiress.

"And this includes attacking my servants in what way?" Rias asked her with a sharp glare. "Also, including this attack, my peerage has been attacked by Fallen angels twice in as many weeks. So tell me why I should not just destroy you right now?"

Well this was not good, but she had just the excuse. "I am here on orders directly from Azazel, and do you really want to risk bringing her wrath upon you?" That made the heiress let off on the bravado.

She heard a snort from the boy wielding the gun. Looking at him she demanded, "And what do you find so damn funny, scum?"

He sneered at her in a way that told her how much he wanted to kill her. "I very much doubt that you're working for Azazel." He told her in a serious voice.

She felt a chill when he said that but did not drop her superior attitude. "And why do you say that?"

"Why would Azazel, someone whose fascination with [Sacred Gears] is public knowledge, order a low level Fallen angel to eliminate a [Sacred Gear] user who had no knowledge of the supernatural or hadn't even activated his [Sacred Gear]. From what I've learned, she would have ordered you to bring him in for study, or if he really had been a threat, Azazel would have sent someone of a higher caliber to take care of it. She simply would not condone the senseless murder of a human like you committed.

"So I ask you: Who are you taking orders from, because it sure as hell isn't Azazel." He finished the explanation and by this point Raynare was ready to panic, she even ignored the anger at being called a low level Fallen angel.

"It doesn't matter, I just want the girl!" She told them as she prepared to create another spear of light.

Issei got ready, putting his Gauntlet forward to defend from light spears. "Well that's not going to happen!" He yelled at his ex, ready for another round.

"Stop!" The nun screamed as the violence was about to start again. Asia had seen how well the two had fought against Raynare, but that had been with the element of surprise and now Raynare knew to focus on both rather than one, and now a person who was their master had appeared and they could not fight Raynare and protect her at the same time. They would get hurt and she didn't want anyone to get hurt for her sake.

"I'll go with you Lady Raynare." She told the Fallen Angel much to the other two's surprise.

B-but Asia?" Issei stuttered at the girls declaration.

"It's ok Issei, even if it was just for today, I had fun, but I don't want you to get hurt for my sake." She said to Issei, she then turned towards the stony faced John. "Thank you for helping Issei, and please watch over him." She said to the boy who had appeared out of nowhere who simply nodded.

Walking over to the Fallen angel, she prepared herself as this would be the last time she would ever see her friend again. That realization made tears fall from her eyes as Raynare held her close and took off with a smirk at the devils.

Issei turned towards Rias ready to plead with her to rescue Asia, but was stopped as he heard an angry yell and the sound of a fist hitting stone and felt a tremor. He turned around and saw John with his fist outstretched, the remains of a pillar on the ground, with an absolutely murderous look.

John felt his control slipping but the look on that woman's face and the tears that Asia let show had him angrier than he had ever been and he had to vent _NOW_.

"John, calm yourself." Rias ordered him, she knew that it would never be good if John ever lost control but she was only seeing a glimpse of that control slipping and knew it would be worse.

John turned his anger on her. "Calm myself, that's what you're telling me to do? Why the hell did you stop us? We could have ended this right here if you had just let us go one more second!" He yelled at her, his anger clouding rational though made him lash out. "Now that girl is in their hands and guess what, they are most likely going to kill her or take her [Sacred Gear], basically the same thing!"

Rias thought about his questions from earlier and thought it was the best course of action to distract him for a few moments. "When you were asking the Fallen angel who she worked for, why were you certain it was not Lady Azazel?"

John took a couple of breaths to try and calm down, it worked mostly, but he felt his anger at the Fallen angel still but he was able to calm down. Looking at her he asked, "Do you remember the book about Fallen Angels I asked for when you introduced me and Issei into the peerage?"

Rias thought back to that day.

* * *

_After Rias had finished explaining the basics of being a devil she had sent Issei and John out to hand out flyers. That had been a few hours ago and now she was looking at paperwork while drinking some tea._

_She heard a knock and looked to the door as John walked in._

"_Yes John? What do you need?" She asked him._

_He looked around curiously before he looked back to her, and began to speak. "I was wondering if you had a book about Fallen Angels?"_

_Rias raised an eyebrow and decided to humor him. "Why do you need such a book?"_

_He looked at her seriously and spoke his reasons. "I want to know about them because it would help me out in the future if I ran into any more. The two that I have had encounters with are arrogant but weak, but I want to know of the stronger members in case I ever do come across them." He explained, Rias smiled at him, planning for inevitabilities, smart of him, with her position, not to mention who her brother was, there was a good chance that they could come across some of the upper echelons of the Grigori._

"_Very well." She reached under her desk and pulled out a book that simply said "Grigori" on the cover. "Keep it for as long as you need." She told him._

"_Thank you Rias. I guess you know that saying 'Know thy enemy-'."_

"'_-as thyself'" She finished with a smile. She had a feeling they would get along just fine._

* * *

She came out of the memory and nodded, and John took that as a signal to continue. "I found a section about Azazel and it mentioned how she was obsessed about studying [Sacred Gears] and it crossed my mind, why would someone like that want to kill someone with a powerful [Sacred Gear] like Issei when she would be more inclined to study it instead? Then it occurred to me that this group may not be following Azazel but someone else." He explained his reasoning.

"But she didn't confirm any of this." Rias pointed out the flaw in his logic.

"True, but she didn't deny it either." He pointed out for her before he turned and walked away.

Rias called out to him. "John, where are you going?"

He looked back and said, "I'm still mad about before, so I'm going to go walk for a while to clear my head." He stopped and looked back a guilty look on his face. "I'm sorry about lashing out at you." He apologized and continued to walk away as Rias and Issei watched his retreating figure.

Rias reached into her skirt pocket and pulled something out before she called out to retreating boy. "John." He turned around to face her and she tossed the item to him. He caught it easily and examined it. It was a bullet, but unlike the ones he used, where they had a silvery gray tint this one was black with red on the edges. Seeing his confused look, Rias smirked before saying, "That is to be a last resort only."

John turned around and continued walking. "As you say, my King."

* * *

Hours later the sun went down over the horizon, and night set over Kuoh. Walking down the street were three people. If anyone looked at them all they would be able to tell that these three would not normally be in the same group together.

The three were devils of the Gremory family who were disobeying direct orders from their master. The three were Issei, Koneko and Yuuto, who were all ready and determined to go into the church where they all knew that the fallen angels that had caused them so much trouble were residing, all three were ready to pull off a rescue mission for the nun who Issei had befriended, Asia Argento.

As they neared the church a new voice alerted them to the presence of another member of the peerage had arrived. "What took you guys so long?" John said as he stepped out of the shadows towards the group, causing them all to tense as they had thought he was an enemy.

Issei looked surprised at the appearance of the **[Rook]. **"John-san? Where have you been, I haven't seen you since I left the park with Buchou." He said before looking closely at the guy's clothing, "And where did you get that?"

All any of the three had ever seen him in outside of rare occasions was his school uniform, but this outfit was completely different. Instead of the blazer and slack that Issei and Kiba wore, John was wearing a black skintight long sleeve shirt that had curves and grooves showing that it was armored, in addition to the armor there were several straps on his front that held half a dozen magazines of ammo and his gun was strapped to his side. Over the shirt he wore a dark blue jacket made from a tough material and he also wore wore a pair of pants with a similar design to the shirt but instead of extra magazines he had six knives that ranged from slim and fragile to wide and sturdy.

"This stuff? I got it from a specialty shop back in the States." He told them easily. "And to answer your question, I've been getting ready for this." He explained as he gesture at the three.

"Oh, ok thanks!" Issei told him as they all moved forward towards the church.

As they got closer John started to split off from the group, before they could ask he told them, "There are bound to be guards around the area, I'll take care of them and keep them from helping the forces in the church."

Koneko walked up to John and stared intently at him. "Be careful…John-kun."

John smiled down at her kindly before he ruffled the shorter girls hair affectionately. "You too, Koneko-chan, tear them apart." He told her and got a nod of confirmation from the smaller girl before he turned and walked into the woods surrounding the church, ready for anything as he pulled out his pistol.

The others turned when he was out of sight and moved closer to the church, it was time to rescue Asia.

* * *

John walked through the woods, trying to sense out the Fallen angels that he knew were in this area, he had sensed them the moment he had seen the church, and now he was making sure they didn't go out to help the others in the church.

As he made his way closer to the church, he felt it, the feeling that the fallen were near. He walked in the direction that the feeling was strongest and after a few minutes he came across three Fallen angels sitting in the trees. John recognized Dohnaseek in his trench coat and fedora, staring down at him with a superior smirk on his lips but it was the other two that really held his attention.

One of the two was a buxom woman with dark blue hair and brown eyes with her bangs covering one of her eyes who looked to be in her mid twenties. She wore a red trench coat like top and matching skirt and the top was wide at the collar, giving a good look at her bountiful cleavage, she also wore black heels.

The other individual was a young looking girl with blonde hair tied into twintails and blue eyes that looked like she was in her early to mid teens. She wore a gothic lolita dress with white frills, a large black bow on the front and a green jewel on the collar, but she was not full figured like the other woman. She also wore thigh high stockings and black shoes and on her head was a black bow.

They all looked down on him, Dohnaseek with his superior smirk, the blue haired woman had a neutral expression and the blonde girl had a mix between a happy smile and an arrogant smirk on her face. "So the Gremory girl sent someone, pity, I thought she would come herself." The blonde girl said before she turned to the blue haired woman, "What's your take on this Kalawarner-nee-chan?" she asked.

"Hmm," was the only sound she made as she stared down at John in his armored clothing, taking in all the knives and magazines he had. "I do believe lady Gremory is underestimating us, but he seems well prepared, Mittlet." She told the younger girl who john assumed was her sister from the way Mittlet had addressed her.

Dohnaseek seemed to be annoyed. "Tch. She is underestimating us." He said matter-of-factly as he sneered down at the armored devil. "This is nothing but low-class scum who I would have killed had his master not shown up." He told them in an arrogant voice.

Mittlet looked annoyed that the man had spoken and turned towards him. "Shut up you old bastard! No one asked you." She told him in a way that let John know that neither the girl nor the woman cared much for Dohnaseek's company.

John spoke up for the first time since entering the clearing. "Considering you attacked me and Issei on our first day as devils, doesn't speak highly of your skill, Dohnaseek, or do you make it a habit of picking on newborns?" He said in a neutral voice that managed to sound condescending to the only male of the company of fallen angels. Dohnaseek looked angry at that, but before he could attack John continued. "If that is the case, then allow me to show you just how much I've grown since we last met." Then before any of the Fallen angels could react he pulled out his gun with his left hand and fired two demonically charged bullets at the man while quickly moving towards the tree to his right.

Dohnaseek flew up as soon as the bullets were fired and when he was high enough, he created a light spear and dive bombed the **[Rook]**. John saw the man flying toward him as he reached the tree, he fired of three more rounds, which Dohnaseek deflected with his spear as he continued his dive. John ran up the tree, using his strength to dig his feet into the bark and when he was high enough, he jumped towards the diving Fallen.

This surprised the other two who had yet to move but were ready to spring into action their wings out, ready to take flight.

When Dohnaseek was in range he tried to stab John with his spear but found his arm was stopped by the boys arm that held the gun before he felt the collar of his coat get caught by John's right hand, before he twisted in the air, throwing the fallen against the tree he had used as a springboard.

Dohnaseek hit the tree with enough force for the plant to shake, showing how hard he had hit it. "Gah!" He cried when he hit the tree, and started to slide down.

John flipped in the air and landed with cat-like grace, and quickly raised his arm, firing more rounds at the angel, who had enough of his wits about him to use his spear as a shield against the projectiles, as John started sprinting towards the angel. When the magazine ran out of bullets, John leaped forward using all of his strength and flew towards the Fallen angel while pulling his arm back.

Dohnaseek saw this and threw himself to the side at the last second as John threw the punch which shattered the trunk of the tree he had jumped off of, making Dohnaseek widen his eyes. But John did not stop there as he then wrapped his arm around the tree and used it as a baseball bat to swing at the other man. It was an attack, which if it had not killed him, that would have injured Dohnaseek severely, so it was lucky for him when the boy threw the tree away and jumped up, landing in one of the branches as a yellow and a pink light spear struck the spot he had been standing, the tree he had abandoned flying towards another that the fell over at the force of the other hitting it.

John looked at the two women who were flying up holding their spears at the ready, while also keeping Dohnaseek in sight.

Mittlet looked at the man with humor in her eyes. "So Dohnaseek, what were you saying about being able to kill him?" She said in a condescending tone.

"Why you…!" Dohnaseek snarled at the blonde only to have Kalawarner interrupt him.

"Shut up, old man. It's obvious that you can't handle him despite your claims so we will assist you despite the fact we would be more than happy to let the devil finish what he started." She told him in a cold voice.

John watched the byplay as he quickly slid the magazine out of his gun and quickly reloaded the pistol. When he was finished the woman took a look at him. Kalawarner admitted that the devil looked rather handsome in the obviously armored clothing he wore; a sense of danger was added when she took in the knives and ammunition he had on him and the cold calculating look his eyes held. Kalawarner had never felt any real animosity towards the Devils, only a mild wariness from the tales she had heard about from the Great War, her and Mittlet's mother did not hate the Devils, so why should she? But she knew from the moment she saw him that he was dangerous, despite her comments earlier, and lady Gremory had not underestimated them if she had sent this boy.

She spoke directly to John from across the clearing. "Tell me devil, what is your name and rank?" She wanted to know the name of this devil if they ever met again.

John thought about lying or attacking but he decided to humor the woman. "My name is John Freemont, and I am the **[Rook]** of Rias Gremory." His voice was smooth and clear, it held no inflection of condescension that it had when he had spoken to Dohnaseek earlier, he showed enough respect to not be rude and Kalawarner liked that.

"Thank you." She responded to his honest answer. "My name is Kalawarner and this is my little sister Mittlet." She told him as she gesture to the petite blonde next to her.

Dohnaseek was annoyed; first he was clearly outmatched against this low-class scum and then was mocked by those two bitches that he put up with, and now she was introducing herself to the devil? "What the fuck, Kalawarner, why are you having a conversation with this piece of trash?" he spat at them.

Kalawarner looked at the man disdainfully. "Just because we are about to fight this devil does not mean we cannot introduce ourselves to an opponent who has done the same." She told him dismissing him.

"Yeah you dirty old man, why don't you just shut up and go crying to Raynare?" Mittlet said while sticking her tongue out at the man like a little child. The sight made John's lips quirk, at least he wasn't the only one who couldn't stand the man.

"Well I'm afraid that it is time for pleasantries to end." Kalawarner said with a sigh, as she readied her spear, along with Mittlet and after a second Dohnaseek.

They all threw their spears at the same time and with three quick shots, John shattered all of them and launched himself forward. When he landed he shot forward to the one who was the most vulnerable, which was Dohnaseek who did not take a stance like the two women.

Before he could get to him Kalawarner appeared in front of him and thrust her spear forward aiming for John's head which he quickly moved to the side to avoid the spear, which Kalawarner had expected. John remembered that the strength of a spear was not its thrust but the swing that one could perform when an opponent dodged right when Kalawarner did so.

Seeing the spear quickly move towards his face, instead of blocking the spear John move his head to the side and shifted his body where his hand was on the ground. When the spear passed over him, he shifted his weight to his hand and used his strength to push himself up and flip himself sideways to throw a punch at the woman's exposed side only to quickly lean back as Mittlet chose that moment to thrust her own spear at him.

John recovered and found himself caught between two competent spear users who attacked him from both sides. He used his armor and defense as a **[Rook]** to deflect the quick blows from both opponents when he could not dodge and in the span of a few seconds had deflected a dozen blows from both women. John had no time to find a shot as he was too busy dodging to aim properly, but soon he noticed that Dohnaseek was taking aim at him in the middle of the fight.

When Kalawarner's next strike came he grabbed her arm and quickly pointed his gun at her spear before squeezing the trigger and launching a demonically charged bullet that shattered her spear. John then drew her arm across her chest and moved behind her right as Mittlet came in for another strike as he held Kalawarner in front of him.

Mittlet hesitated for only a moment but that was all John needed as he then quickly fired another round that shattered Mittlet's pink spear, he then pushed Kalawarner with his strength at the smaller girls sending the two hurtling at each other before he span around and caught the spear that Dohnaseek had thrown mid-flight. It burned even John's dense skin for a second before he flipped the spear and launched it right back at Dohnaseek.

Dohnaseek saw the spear coming at him in shock before he returned to his senses and dismissed the weapon and was immediately hit by a flying superman punch by John that sent him flying though a tree that was behind him.

John did not have time to relax as he quickly jumped out of the way of a pink spear that had been thrown by an irate loli, who was mad because his throw had put her and her sister in a compromising position.

When he passed a thick limb he clapped his hands together and sent a multitude of strings made of demonic energy at the branch that wrapped around the wood that allowed him to launch himself back at the blonde gothic Lolita and deliver a flying kick that sent her flying through the woods.

John then pulled out one of the thin knives and threw it behind him that lodged itself into Dohnaseek's shoulder, who cried out in pain, before pulling out one of the thicker knives which he coated in demonic energy before deflecting the light spear that was thrown at him by Kalawarner before he moved towards the woman who flew at him and the two clashed before separating to catch their breath.

Kalawarner looked at the boy in interest; it had been a long time since someone was capable of handling both her and her sister at the same time and the fact that this devil, despite only being one for a week was keeping up with them was rather interesting. She looked at the armor he wore, it was not magical armor, obviously, but mundane which meant that it could not take that many blows from her spear, already she could see parts that were smoking or slightly melted from the brief contact it had made with her and Mittlet's spears.

John decided to speak to her for a moment. "You and your sister are quite skilled." He told her, if she was not in the middle of a fight she would have preened from the praise from a skilled opponent, but the boy was earning some points from her.

"Thank you for your kind words." She said simply with a small smile.

John looked at his weapon and knew he was at a disadvantage in reach, he needed a longer weapon. Then John remembered his and Akeno's lessons, demonic energy was only limited by the users imagination. He quickly wrapped the knife in demonic energy that turned into wind, extending the blades reach and creating a blade of wind as sharp as any sword. He smiled and got ready to fight once more.

* * *

When Issei, Koneko and Kiba all made it to the church Issei had used promotion to turn into a **[Rook]** and they had encountered the stray exorcist Freed Selzan, who they quickly defeated in large part to Kiba's [Holy Eraser], a demonic sword crafted to absorb the holy element in Freed's own sword, and was then subject to one of Koneko's fierce punches.

After beating him Koneko had found a secret entrance that led to a chamber that was beneath the alter. There they had found nearly three dozen exorcists and Raynare, and right there chained to a cross.

Issei and the two devils witnessed one of the most horrible things that could be done to people like Asia, to have her [Sacred Gear] ripped out.

Raynare grabbed the [Sacred Gear] all the while whispering "With this I will be loved."

The exorcists tried to attack them but Kiba and Koneko's combined strength was enough to hold them back, with Kiba absorbing their light weapons and Koneko rushing in to beat them down while distracted.

Issei stared at the two as they held back the mass of exorcists before he rushed up the stairs. When he reached the top, Raynare had released Asia from the cross and had started to mock him and ridicule him for being a fool and showed just how cruel she was by reminding him of how she had played with him the entire time.

All that time he had spent trying to give her the best date he could and she treated it all like it was worthless while it had been priceless to him. How could he have ever truly liked this woman?

And now after he had gotten out of that basement while carrying a dying Asia in his arm he was faced with just how evil the woman that had appeared before him truly was.

After he put her down, Asia reached up. Issei reached forward and grasped her hand as she began to speak to him. "Even if it was for a short time… I'm glad I made a friend like you." She told him in a weak voice.

"No no, it's not going to end here, not like this!" he told her as he felt his eyes began to gain unshed tears. "We're going to be friends for a lot longer than this." He said as the tears began to fall. "After this we can go do all sorts of things together and you could meet my friends, and that's because it's not going to end here."

Asia gain a happy smile at his words. "I wish it could have been different, that I grew up in this country and went to your school." She admitted never losing her smile.

"And you still can." Issei told her as his voice wavered from the raw emotion he was feeling.

Asia reached her hand out to cradle his face and he looked at her. "I never meant to make you cry Issei. I'm so sorry." She gave him one last smile as tears gathered in her eyes and said the one word that Issei had been dreading since he had seen her strung up on that cross. "Goodbye." And with that Asia Argento died with tears in her eyes and a smile on her face.

Issei stared at the form of the girl who had been like a ray of light in a dark room, a light so bright and so vibrant that it was like the sun. And just like that, that light had been snuffed out, that one good thing in the world that nobody was able to comprehend was gone. A girl who healed, worshipped as a saint, reviled as a witch.

Issei looked at the ceiling trying to look past it with tears in his eyes and cried out, "Why? Why was it her that had to die? She never did anything wrong, all she wanted was to help people. So why would you let her die like this?" he was silent for a second and then screamed, "ANSWER ME!"

"A demon praying in church, how Ironic" Raynare appeared in the pew beside Issei. He looked at her and saw that she still held that superior smile of hers. She looked down and saw the scratch that had been put there by the knight downstairs. "Ugh, how tacky is this?" She said gesturing at the scratch. "Some rabid knight gave it to me on the way up here. But no matter I heal instantly," at this she use the power of the [Twilight Healing] to heal the cut, "a great boon for those of us that no longer have divine protection."

Raynare then put her hands together a performed a mockery of a school girl prayer. "Lady Azazel and lord Shemhazai I am ready to be of service to you now." She said.

Issei became pissed off at how easily this woman put her desires over the life of a pure hearted girl like Asia. "What does any of that matter?" He said and Raynare looked at him sharply. "What did have to do with a girl like Asia? She wasn't a threat, she didn't even care about power." He told getting even angrier as time passed.

Raynare rose and started to speak. "For those with [Sacred Gears] this is their destiny." She told him and shrugged.

"That is bullshit!" Issei said in response to the claim, "She never wanted it, she just wanted to live in peace."

"And that is out of the question."

"Why!?" He demanded

Raynare looked at him with a smirk. "Humans don't have the ability to survive in their world with a sacred gear." She said matter-of-factly before she continued, "Those with power, even those who would use that power for good would be feared and seen as different."

Issei remembered Asia's story of how she came to be in Japan, how she had healed a devil and the masses had turned on her.

"That's just how humans operate. What a waste of power." Raynare said still with her superior smirk.

"That wouldn't have happened, I would have protected hert!" He told the Fallen angel.

"She's dead, and you're talking about protecting her? You do realize how psychotic you're sounding. You couldn't protect her then and you can't protect her now." Now Raynare's face started to turn feral, for a moment showing just what kind of a twisted creature she really was.

Issei remembered being told how the [Sacred Gear] worked in direct correlation to his desire and at this moment he wanted with all his being to make this thing pay for killing Asia, for playing with him like he didn't matter, for killing both him and John and anyone else who had fell to her machinations. "Shut up!" he told her as he clenched his fist. "I don't care how pathetic it sounds, I don't care what you say about me, I WANT ASIA BACK!" and with that his [Sacred Gear] appeared.

When it was formed the gauntlet gave out a new declaration. "**[Dragon Boost].**"

No matter what he was going to end this bitch.

* * *

Back in the clearing, John was using his knife/wind sword to parry and block the spears that Mittlet and Kalawarner thrust at him.

As he deflected another thrust he leaned back to dodge a swipe from Kalawarner only to have Mittlet appear above him, her spear over her head and ready to bring it down on him. John raised the gun, charged the bullet with lightning and then fired, a bright yellow beam flying from the barrel. It collided with the girls spear, causing it to explode rather than shatter and throwing the girl across the field.

John noticed a blue spear coming towards him and jumped out of the way. While he was in the air Kalawarner flew at him and threw her spear, John crossed his arms and hissed when he felt the holy energy cut through the armor and hit his hardened skin shattering on impact and leaving several gashes. He flooded his arms with demonic energy to rid the appendages of any lingering energy so he wasn't poisoned. He then flipped and landed on the branch.

John took stock of his situation, the fight was not going badly but it was only going as well as a three on one fight could possibly go. The two sisters were very skilled when it came to close combat with those spears, John had only expected them to throw those spears and try to keep him at a distance, but he should have known that someone would think to use the light weapons as a melee weapon at some point. By this point his Jacket had been torn to shreds as well.

John suddenly felt a spike in power from the church, he recognized that power, and it came from Issei's [Sacred Gear]. Judging from the looks on the Fallen's faces they had felt it too.

Kalawarner frowned, out of all of the Fallen she seemed to be the most even tempered and least arrogant of the three, Mittlet was not so much arrogant but proud of the skills she had, Dohnaseek was the arrogant one.

Kalawarner looked back to him and began to speak, "Why did you let the [Sacred Gear] user face Raynare? You know what she will do to him."

"Yeah." Mittlet, who had recovered from her spear exploding, piped up. "She told us all about what she did to him and how she treated his efforts on their date."

John looked at the two curiously, out of all the Fallen present they were the ones that confused him. Where Raynare and Dohnaseek were arrogant in the extreme, these two were proud but reserved, and they both seemed disgusted at Raynare's actions and attitude.

"Tch, it does not matter what he thinks, he will be dead soon enough." Dohnaseek put his (unwanted) opinion into the mix.

John looked at the three and decided to speak. "It's because he deserves to face her for what she has done." He told them with a sure voice. "I saw the look on that girls face when she went to Raynare's side, she knew that by coming back here she was resigning herself to death. When I saw Raynare's face at that moment I knew that this was just another way to torture Issei to her, that she enjoyed the pain she caused."

John continued on with his reasons. "When I was young I saw no difference between right and wrong, good-evil, black-white, it made no difference to me. I read books and literature to try and understand what the difference was, but I couldn't see any difference between the mugger who murders a man for the money in his wallet and the woman who kills a man to protect her family, someone died in both situations. Then I saw Raynare about to kill Issei after playing with his feelings, making him feel like a fool for trying so hard.

"They say devil's are beings of evil who play with the souls of man for their own amusement, but I have yet to meet a devil who plays with people like Raynare has. So I say that Issei deserves a chance to be rid of her, to beat her so that he doesn't have to deal with her shit, and only then will he be able to move on and grow stronger." John told them coming to the end of his speech.

Dohnaseek snorted at the speech. "Raynare is stronger than all of us, that boy has no chance, definitely not with that pathetic [Sacred Gear] of his." At that proclamation the two women looked insulted.

"Issei may be a perv, he may be weak and has no talent for fighting, but what he is, is loyal, if he calls someone a friend he would turn over heaven and hell to make sure they are safe and happy. Asia is his friend and Raynare…Raynare was doomed the moment she took that girl." John said with absolute certainty to the Fallen's claim.

"Oh stop with your meaningless drivel!" Dohnaseek yelled as he ignited another spear and charged at John. John jumped away and fired the last bullet in his magazine at the man's spear before he went behind a tree. He only had a single bullet left and it was the one that Rias had given him. Putting the bullet in the gun he put it away he pulled one of the other knives from his armored pants and did the same thing he had done with his other knife and created a sword of demonic energy only instead of wind the blade was made of lightning, which he then used to block the spear that flew at him as Dohnaseek flew by his position. Jumping down to ground level he was met with the two sisters who both attacked him with their spears which he blocked with the knives.

He then lashed out at both, he first swung at the blond who blocked the high strike but was left vulnerable to the kick she received to her stomach that sent her sliding backwards. John then used his momentum to jump and spin in mid air, slashing at Kalawarner who blocked the attacks. When he landed he threw one of the knives which she swiftly deflected before she received a punch that generated a shockwave to her stomach that sent her flying right through several large trees.

He heard the sound of someone flying at him from behind him and turned just in time to see Dohnaseek charging at him, a large spear of light in his hands aiming right at his heart. John knew that he would not be able to dodge but he used his sword to force the weapon upwards…where it hit his right shoulder.

John grunted as he felt the light sear his shoulder, charring it from the inside out, somehow blood made it up his throat and out the corners of his mouth.

Dohnaseek smiled ferally. "Not what I was aiming for but good enough." He said as he raised the weapon to strike down the devil once and for all.

"Oh just shut the hell up!" John said in pain as he quickly pulled the gun out from under his right shoulder and fired his last bullet.

He was not prepared for the wave of unfocused black and red energy that flew from the barrel of his gun, and he did not pay attention to the sound of Dohnaseek screaming as he was slowly destroyed at the molecular level. When it was over the area where Dohnaseek had been was devoid of any life as the ground had been charred and the grass annihilated.

He dropped the gun from his hand and it fell apart on impact. Rias had somehow managed to compress her Power of Destruction into a single bullet and even if his gun had handled his bullets being charged with demonic energy there was no way it could stand the stress of coming in contact with something with the sole purpose to destroy anything it came in contact with, so the gun was destroyed. John didn't know how to feel, he had had that gun for years and it had served him well and now that it was gone.

Kalawarner and Mittlet walked back into the clearing, holding their stomachs that were sore from his blows, with wide eyes at the destruction that had been wrought from that one shot.

Mittlet turned to her sister and asked, "So what do we do now?"

Kalawarner looked at the surprised and injured devil that tried to get up to continue the fight only to fall to his knees as the holy energy in his shoulder burned it from the inside out. The devil could no longer fight so there was no need for them to fight any longer, they had done their jobs. She moved toward the injured devil that tried once more to get up and failed and now that she was closer she could see the blood that seeped through the armor he wore.

When she reached him he looked at her with strong eyes, eyes that refused to look away should she choose to kill him. She reached her hand out and placed it on his injured shoulder and extracted the holy energy from the wound.

"O-onee-chan, what are you doing?" Mittlet asked her older sister who had finished removing the toxin from the devil.

John looked at the woman who helped him and asked, "Why?"

Kalawarner looked at him for a moment and answered. "You fought well. I would hate to see such a worthy opponent fall when we have yet to finish our battle. However we are all injured and tired, so we will have to settle this another time. Besides we completed our mission and are ready to report Raynare's betrayal to Lady Azazel."

John knew that something was wrong with the situation from the start and the fact that these two obviously had hated Dohnaseek and showed disdain at any mention of Raynare had only solidified his suspicions, but this, this confirmed them without a doubt.

"Who was she working for?" He asked right when Kalawarner turned away from him.

She paused before she answered. "We cannot tell you, but prepare yourself. The one who watches over the stars is preparing for something." And with that cryptic warning she and her sister, who looked confused, walked away, leaving him alone.

* * *

When the two fallen angels were out of the de- John Freemont's range of hearing Mittlet turned to her blue haired older sister to speak. "Nee-chan, why did you let him live?"

Kalawarner thought about it for a second before she answered. "I don't know, he just interested me. And you can't say you're not excited about a fight with him in the future?" She said to her little sister with a small smile.

Mittlet rubbed her stomach remembering all the hits she and her sister had taken from the devil. "Yeah, he really put us through the paces." She responded to her sister's statement.

"I have a feeling we are going to see him again really soon." Kalawarner said as she activated the circle that would take them to their superior.

* * *

John watched as the two fallen angel girls walked away, leaving him in the middle of the clearing, alone and injured. When they were gone he reached out to the tree beside him and lifted himself up. Before he had barely been able to stand due to the immense pain he was feeling from having the holy energy from Dohnaseek's spear of light lingering in his shoulder and when Kalawarner had purged the energy from the injury he felt stronger but still weak.

He tore the sleeve off of what little remained of the jacket he had worn, gritting his teeth as he felt the pain in his shoulder grow sharper when he tried to move it, he had managed to deflect the spear right into the joint which meant that if he didn't get treated he might not be able to use that shoulder properly.

"Well that was interesting." He heard the voice from beside him and saw that it was Akeno, who for some reason had a blush across her face. "Those two let you go, and that warning. I've never seen Fallen angels be so accommodating before." She continued as an afterthought.

John shrugged, wincing when he jostled his injury. "Like the blue haired one said, they were here to monitor Raynare, and I was a 'worthy opponent'. They are probably going to come back for a rematch pretty _soon_!" He said through gritted teeth as he tried to wrap the torn cloth around his shoulder with one hand, causing him to grunt the last word.

Akeno swiftly moved behind him and took the cloth before she tied it herself trying to do so without causing him further pain, she may have been a sadist but she did not like to see her allies go through unnecessary suffering like this, unless it was in between the sheets of course.

When she was done, she moved to his other side and lifted his arm using the **[Rook]** portion of her power as a **[Queen]** to easily support his frame as he was still a little weak from his injury.

"How certain are you that she was telling the truth and not deceiving you?" She said with an almost imperceptible scowl on her face.

John noticed and decided not to ask, if she had a problem with Fallen angels she would tell him on her own. "I'm about eighty-five percent certain she was telling the truth." He told her after a moment of contemplation.

Akeno looked at him her smile back in place as they made their way to the church. "What you're not one hundred percent certain that she's telling the truth." She said teasingly.

John sighed. "Nothing is ever perfectly certain. A strategy could be completely perfect on paper but when put on the battlefield, nothing is certain. They had the perfect opportunity to kill me, I was defenseless and weak and they could have ended it there, but they didn't, they removed a toxin and left me with little more than a farewell and a cryptic warning. Which begs the question: why would they do that?" He explained to her before he decided to switch topics. "And how long were you there for?" he asked figuring that she had been watching the fight.

"Rias and I arrived right after you threw the male Fallen angel into the tree. She saw that you had it handled and left me behind as a just in case." She told him. "Rias had planned to keep those three occupied with a larger target, herself, to keep them from helping their leader out, but you beat her to it. "And Imust say with you around it's like Rias has another **[Queen]** with all the skills you managed to acquire in such a short amount of time."

"So that was her plan. She never intended to tell Issei not to attack; she wanted him to do this on his own didn't she?" John asked thinking over the circumstances of the night. "And you're the only **[Queen]** in this peerage but thanks for the compliment."

"Of course, but you had your own suspicions, didn't you?" Akeno said as they neared the church after a few minutes. "Everyone in Rias-sama's peerage is completely loyal to her, and there is no way they would ever disobey her unless she told them to do so."

John chuckled lightly at her explanation before speaking, "What a caring but terrifying master we have."

When he said that, they saw a figure smash out of the stained glass window and fall on the ground by them. Looking at the figure, John saw that it was Raynare, the leather straps and short, dark, hair was all he needed before they walked into the church.

When they got in John saw Issei being supported by Kiba. John had been right this was going to be hard for the boy, and going by the bloodstains he could see on his legs, the fight had not been an easy one on top of that. Another thing John noticed was Issei's [Sacred Gear]. Where before it had been simply a crimson gauntlet with a small green jewel on the top and gold accents, it had changed. Now the gauntlet had become more dragon like and extended up to his elbow and covering his fingers with sharp, claw-like armor with the two gold accents spreading outward near the elbow and all across it was intricate gold lines.

When John and Akeno arrived Rias had just started talking. "When I arrived I saw John was taking care of the other three Fallen angels and came here immediately and found Koneko and Kiba in the middle of a battle royale with those Stray exorcists."

John spoke up when she finished. "Thanks for the vote of confidence." Everyone turned to see him being supported by Akeno and his right arm hanging limply at his side.

"Ah John-san, I assume everything went well?" Rias said cheerfully but clearly showed she was worried about him clearly being injured.

"More or less. Dohnaseek got the drop on me at one point, so my shoulder's out of commission." He said in response before he turned to Issei and gave him a thumbs up. "Good job on beating Raynare, I knew you could do it."

Before anything else could be said Koneko came in dragging the defeated Raynare and threw her in front of Rias and walked over to John when she noticed he was injured. She and Akeno seemed to have a wordless argument before Akeno moved and Koneko quickly moved to his side to support him.

Rias walked up to the Fallen angel, ignoring the byplay between the three servants and began speaking. "Raynare, it's nice to see you again." She said in a voice that clearly told the opposite. "I didn't get to introduce myself last time, but my name is Rias Gremory, the next head of house of the Gremory."She let that fact sink in.

"Gremory?" Raynare whispered, her fear of being at the mercy of the heir of a powerful devil clan clearly showing. "No way? You've got to be kidding me." She then tried to wriggle out of the situation. "Don't you dare." She snarled, "I have others with me and they will be here any minute."

John interrupted her scare tactics. "Dohnaseek is dead and Kalawarner and Mittlet abandoned you to report your betrayal of your superiors. You have no one." He told her in a hard voice despite being supported by Koneko.

"Lies!" she cried out, desperately hoping that he was wrong.

"Afraid not." It was Akeno who spoke as she moved forward dropping a lone black feather in front of the Fallen angel.

"John took out three fallen angels?" Issei said in awe at his fellow devil's achievement.

"More like held off and got lucky." John said in response.

When Issei and John stopped speaking Rias looked at Issei and noticed the gauntlet. "Lucky you. I didn't see your [Sacred Gear]." She said.

Issei looked down at the changed item while scratching his head. "Yeah it just started acting weird and changed all of a sudden."

"Well Raynare you don't have to be ashamed, you weren't defeated by a [Twice Critical] at all. That item automatically doubles the owner's power every ten seconds, allowing him to transcend even gods, the [Boosted Gear] the gauntlet of the Red Dragon Emperor one of the thirteen Longinus. However it requires a large amount of time to gather enough power, you should have learned that lesson earlier because it led to your downfall." She told the Fallen angel.

When she heard this Raynare was starting to get real desperate as she felt that the Gremory was almost done rubbing her defeat in. John saw the desperation and prepared for her to lash out by charging up some demonic energy.

But what she really did was far crueler than anything he could think of.

"Issei, please." Raynare said in her Yuuma voice, trying to get to Issei through his lingering feelings for her. John saw Issei's reaction and knew he had to stop this. "I know I said some horr-" before she could even finish that statement a gust hit her and blood splattered from her throat. She tried but could not speak and only felt pain because that gust of wind had contained a small blade that had cut her vocal chords.

Everyone turned to see John with his left hand raised and a livid expression on his face, his amber eyes looking like golden fire to express how furious he was at what the woman had just tried. He moved forward, slowly, like a predator. "It's not enough that you have played with his life, but you tried to use his feelings to get out of a situation that is of your own making? You disgust me."

"Rias…please just end this" Issei said looking at the girl he thought he had cared for.

Rias moved forward with an equally if not more so furious look on her face as she charged her Power of Destruction. "You've toyed with my servant's emotions enough. Begone!" she exclaimed, releasing the bolt of magic.

Raynare would have screamed had John not sliced her voice box. And in less than a second, all that remained of Raynare was a mass of feathers.

With the woman gone forever, John turned away leaving Issei and Rias along with all the other members of the peerage in the church. John had seen the look on Issei's face, what Raynare had tried might have broken him had he not stopped her. He needed to leave.

"I'll meet you at the clubroom." He told her in a blank voice as he walked away into the night.

* * *

Rias appeared out of a magic circle with her newest servant and **[Bishop]**, Asia Argento so that she could crash in the Club's guest room. When the light cleared she saw her second **[Rook]** sitting on the couch with a pen and paper trying to write with his left hand as his right was out of commission. It turns out John Freemont was ambidextrous.

She decided to speak. "Ah, John-san I'm glad you're hear I'd like to reintroduce you to the newest member of our family. This is Asia Argento." She gestured to the petite blonde beside her.

Asia Stuttered nervously at him. "I-it's nice to meet you."

He decided not to scare the girl and smiled, "Same here." He said but winced as his shoulder began to throb.

Asia noticed and saw the make shift bandage. "Ah, you're injured." Then before John could wave her off she had brought out [Twilight Healing] and immediately healed the wound.

John waved the previously injured appendage amazed at the work. "Well that's amazing, I can barely tell it was even injured. Thank you." He thanked the former nun.

"It was no trouble." Asia said with a beaming smile.

Rias was glad to see John was interacting well with the new member until John spoke once more. "Rias, thank you for that bullet, it practically saved my life."

She blinked before smiling, until she saw the damaged armor he wore and his lack of a fire arm. "What happened?" She asked seriously.

John sighed before he began speaking. "Though the armor did help, it's only mundane armored clothes, and the bullet…destroyed my gun." He said.

Rias bowed her head, she should have known that something would have happened to the weapon as it was only human made, and not capable of handling something like the Power of Destruction. "I'm sorry about that, I did not think it through enough, even if it was a last resort."

"It's no problem, like I said, it saved my life but do you know what this means?" he asked her as he slid the papers he had been writing on towards her and she picked them up.

When she looked at him he smiled lightly. "I need new weapons."

On the sidelines Asia was confused by Rias' sudden smile.

* * *

In the courtyard of a grand building a magic circle appeared, dropping off the two sister who then made their way to the main office where they knew who they needed to report to was.

When they arrived to the room they saw a woman with long black hair that shifted to blonde, wearing a red trench coat that was slightly open at the chest that showed her ample cleavage and grey leather pants that were so tight they left nothing to the imagination. She turned as the two women entered, looking over the two with purple eyes, and lifting a delicate eyebrow at their disheveled state.

Kalawarner spoke in a clear respectful voice to the woman. "We have come to report our findings Lady Azazel." This woman was the Governor General of the Fallen angels. Azazel

The woman looked at Kalawarner. "And?" she asked simply, letting the woman know to continue.

Kalawarner took a deep breath before continuing, "Raynare was taking order from Kokabiel, but we do not know what the purpose for the theft of the [Twilight Healing] was for or if it served any purpose at all." She reported, it was a lot less than she would have liked to have.

"Good. Thank you for your service, we have now confirmed Kokabiel's betrayal but we do not know of his ultimate goal however, though I do have a couple of guesses." Azazel said in a deep and husky voice, perfect for seducing any man she ever came across, given they caught her attention of course.

"Very well. By your leave." Kalawarner said and tried to leave.

"Wait, Kalawarner. Tell me why you and Mittlet look like you have a few ruffled feathers?" The woman asked with a small smirk on her face.

Kalawarner looked at the woman for a second before shrugging. "We met a…interesting devil on our mission." She said simply.

The woman looked rather disappointed at Kalawarner's formal and respectful response. "Ohh, Kalawarner-chan stop being so formal you know I hate that. Why can't you just call me mother like you used to." She was also the mother of these two particular Fallen angels.

**Chapter end.**

**So what do you think? I know I changed things up from how they were in the anime and manga but I rather liked how this chapter turned out. I know I changed Kalawarner and Mittlet up from how they were, but seriously Kalawarner only appeared twice in the series and Mittlet only once so I changed how they were. The thing about using the light spears as melee weapon was kind of a given, I mean the Fallen and Angels had been around for millennia and I have yet to see one that has used the spears as anything other than a projectile, so I made Kalawarner and Mittlet sisters who liked to get in close with their weapons, and were exceptionally skilled because of who their mother is. Also John's sudden skill with demonic energy and acrobatics in combat, well he is a super soldier and in my mind in addition to peak physical condition he would have the ability to convert any skill he learned into a combat skill like with the wire construct he used as a rubber band during the fight.**

**Also if it seemed like I was hating on Dohnaseek and Raynare…That was exactly what I was doing, I mean seriously Dohnaseek was an asshole from his first appearance and Raynare using Issei's feelings to try and turn him against Rias, I **_**really**_** have a new found hatred for that because when my ex, you know the one who destroyed years of hard work, was in court for trying to deface my property she tried to appeal to me to try and get out of trouble by trying to target the part of me that still kinda cares for her. On top of that, that one event scarred Issei so deeply that he had problems connecting to any girl who liked him until like the fifteenth or sixteenth volume of the light novels! So yeah I really hate Raynare.**

**Also me Gender-bending Azazel, Eh I always thought Azazel would have done better as a woman. No other Gender bends.**

**And finally the talk between John and Rias about his emotions and actions, well I've gone over this character and have found that his character is kind of inconsistent with how I portrayed him in the first chapter, so yeah just a convenient plot device.**

**So John's new weapons will be a surprise and will be more than a new gun see you next chapter and the beginning of the Riser arc. I have always wanted to say/write/type that!**

**John's Harem: Akeno, Koneko, Kuroka, Xenovia, Yubelluna, Grayfia, Serafall, Sona, Katarea, Kalawarner, Azazel (fem.) and Isabela.**


	5. Chapter 5: Challenge for Freedom

Disclaimer: I do not own Highschool DxD, but this OC is mine.

Super Soldier of Gremory

Chapter 5: Challenge for Freedom

_The moment the guard heard those words he looked down at me and his hand moved towards the communicator in his ear. I punched him in the groin causing him to bend over, groaning while I reached for the device on his hip, jammed it into his neck and turned it on._

_The man convulsed for a few seconds and fell over and I was running before he hit the ground._

_I ran towards the door that led into the rain I saw two men reached the door and were blocking it. When I was close enough, I jumped up and latched onto one of the men's shoulders and jammed the taser I still held into his neck. The combination of my weight and the taser on his neck threw him off balance and he smashed into the wall behind him._

_When the man was unconscious I quickly turned towards the other man and heard a loud boom that was followed by an extremely painful feeling of my shoulder being torn through before I felt whatever hit me pass through. Looking at the man he held a smoking gun and without giving him another chance to fire again, I threw the still active taser at the man, that hit him in the face and shocked him momentarily, I then jumped and snatched the gun from his hand and whipped him across the face, knocking him out._

_I threw the gun down and ran out the door into the rain, never giving the facility I had run from another thought, fleeing into the city that I did not even know the name of._

_#_

Before the sun rose Monday morning John and Kiba watched a figure run around the track in Kuoh academies' sports field at low level **[Knight] **speed, it was when the figure came near that it was revealed to be a very exhausted Issei who was running. Issei collapsed on the ground in an exhausted heap in his gym clothes and showing signs of an extremely gruesome workout as he gulped in as much air as he could. If one were to look at his legs they would see two straps that held heavy bars on his thighs and calves and that he was carrying a large boulder on his back for extra weight. It was a small miracle that the boy was even able to breathe.

John got up and walked towards the boy who was still breathing deeply. "Issei how many laps was that?" John asked the boy.

"F-fifty like you told me John-sensei." Issei told him in an exhausted voice.

John was still getting used to being called sensei. A couple of days after the church incident Issei had asked Rias for training and the next day she left him in the tender mercies of John. John seeing that the boy needed some real training due to how badly Raynare had injured him and the fact that enemies would not give him the time he needed to boost to a level that he could match, decided to put him through the ringer.

The first day, John had made Issei promote into a **[Queen]** and saw that Issei was on the ground writhing in pain as his body simply could not handle the stress. So instead, John had Asia heal up his stressed body and had him promote into the other pieces: **[Knight]**, **[Rook]** and **[Bishop]** to work on his capabilities in all three categories.

The first thing that John learned when he decided to test Issei's capabilities as a **[Bishop]** was that he was incredibly lacking in the magic department. The amount of magic Issei had managed to summon was only the size of a small marble, meaning he didn't have a lot of hope for that style of combat according to others. John didn't believe that all was lost and made Issei cast spells over and over again until he passed out before John woke him with a bucket of water. Surprisingly they had found that Issei's magic ability had grown slightly as his magic marble had grown by a small fraction. Now it was two weeks later and Issei's magic had grown to the size of a ping-pong ball. Good news for Issei as he no longer had to ride a bike to meet his clients.

The rest of the training was fairly standard for the other two pieces. For the **[Knight] **John made Issei run laps and obstacle courses while wearing weights to build up stamina and leg strength. For the **[Rook]** John had Issei lift weights and do "endurance" training, which involved having Koneko smash him around all over the field.

Issei had learned quickly that it was improve or die with John, heavy emphasis on the die.

Which now led to the present, Issei was now able to promote into a **[Queen]** without issues and since the piece was a combination of all the lower pieces, John mixed and matched.

"Good!" John said, which caused Issei to start shivering as John complimenting him normally meant horrible pain for him. "Now I want you to remove the weights and get into the first lane." Issei nodded and did as he was told. He had also learned quickly to not complain or resist or he would be met with a worse punishment.

As Issei moved where he was directed, John created thirty-two thick ice walls and Akeno and Koneko walked onto the field, Koneko carrying a large wagon of rocks. When he was done, John turned back to Issei and began to speak. "Now I want you to use your **[Knight]** speed and your **[Rook]** durability to run eight laps, while running through these walls and dodging whatever Akeno and Koneko-chan throw at you." He told the boy. "When you're done run twenty-five more laps in the eighth lane as fast as you can and then we will be finished for today"

Issei nodded without a word as he was too tired to say anything. "And GO!" John yelled, and the tor- training began and not even a second later Issei had smashed through the first Ice wall and Koneko had thrown a large rock at him while Akeno shot lightning.

John was back in his seat as Kiba watched Issei's training. "You know, I can't help but notice how much he has improved." Kiba stated as Issei crashed through yet another wall while dodging a spell from Akeno.

"Yep, He's able to almost keep up with you now on those obstacle courses and he's starting to keep up with Koneko-chan in their spars." John acknowledged. "Pretty soon he'll be sparring with me." John told him as they watched Issei finish his first lap.

"What about his [Sacred Gear]?" Kiba asked while watching Issei train.

John shrugged before speaking. "The last time I checked his progress was Saturday and he was able to boost eighteen times."

Kiba looked at John in surprise missing Issei get hit by Koneko's boulder and shrugging it off. "Eighteen! That's amazing! I'm really surprised you're not focusing on it though."

John sighed, "One must lay the foundation before they build a house." He told Kiba and started to speak once more. "Yes, the ability to double your power is a great ability, but if Issei's body can't handle the energy then he crashes. It's better that he trains himself up to use his weapon properly instead of focusing solely on that one skill, besides, can you imagine if Rias was the one to train him? I mean no offense to our master but that wouldn't really help as Issei would be too distracted to learn anything." John laughed a little as Issei was almost finished and only had one more lap to go and looked like he had been drug through the dirt.

Kiba turned once more in surprise at John's thoughts about the [Boosted Gear] before he decided to switch topics. "Speaking of weapons, have you gotten any word on when those weapons you asked to be made will be ready?" He asked as John leaned back in his chair as Issei finally finished the laps before moving to the eighth lane and started running while dodging the spell fire and rocks thrown by the other two peerage members.

Meanwhile Asia had shown up and looked worried at the brutal training that Issei was going through and made her way to John and Kiba.

John sighed once more at the question. "Rias said that she knew someone who might be interested in building the stuff but that it could easily go from a couple of weeks to a couple of months, and even then my requests are only being looked at because she knows the guy." John said. "I only hope my new stuff comes in before something major happens." John said looking to the sky as he waited for Issei to finish the twenty-five laps.

#

Rias was in the ORC clubroom, watching as the sun rose. She watched as the flashes of lightning that had no doubt been summoned by her **[Queen]** began to stop and the sound of large objects being thrown ceased. She had let her peerage know to stop Issei's training as soon as the sun rose as a way to let the student council president repair the damage before any student arrived.

Behind her was Sona who looked out the window with a blank stare as if measuring how much damage had been done despite the gym being in between the clubroom and the field. She sighed and began to speak. "I wonder how much damage was done this time."

"I don't know but Issei is bound to be exhausted because of it and don't forget the damage to the field with John using it for sparring with the others." Rias responded to the girl's statement.

"Of course." Sona said in response as she adjusted her glasses. "Freemont-san does seem to go overboard with Hyoudou-san's and his own training. Does he know…?" She didn't finish.

Rias sighed as Sona brought up a subject she would rather not talk about. "No. Issei needed training so I took him to John. I didn't think he would be so brutal though, but it has yielded results." Rias told the bespectacled girl as she saw her peerage heading towards the building. Issei was being dragged by John as he was too exhausted to move.

"Really? What kind of results?" Sona asked Rias.

"Now that would be telling." Rias said as she turned and gave her friend a smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "I just wish the others had John's enthusiasm for training, Akeno seems to be the only one who spar's with him regularly and I'm not quite sure if she's doing it for training or appeasing her newly acquired M-side."

Sona looked at Rias in shock over her comment about the obvious sadist. "You mean that he is able to fight your **[Queen]** and win?" She asked.

"Quite brutally." Rias told her. "He seems to be a born fighter." She commented as she watched John hold a conversation with Koneko.

"Not to mention that he is also quite intelligent even before he was reincarnated into a devil. His grades are near the top." Sona added to the crimson haired girl's assessment.

Rias gave the girl a sly look. "Oh? Looking into a potential boyfriend?" She said in a teasing tone.

Sona looked away with a small blush as she spoke. "I have no idea what you're talking about. Besides I thought we were talking about your little family problem?" she deflected.

With that statement Rias' good cheer vanished and was replaced by a blank expression. "Please I would rather not talk about that." She sighed at her friend's question.

"You can't avoid it forever, not when your family has moved the date up." Sona reminded Rias about her parent's decisions.

Rias sighed once more. "Well what am I supposed to do? I am too young to challenge Riser to a Rating Game and it's not like I can challenge him to a chess game for my freedom." She told her friend, reminding Sona of her own successful bid for freedom.

"True. But you will think of something." Sona said in a voice that told Rias that she believed in her. "If not for yourself, then for your peerage." And with that Sona left the room only seconds before the Gremory peerage came through the door to get ready for class.

Rias watched them all with a smile on her face; she would do anything for her peerage.

#

John sat in English taking notes over what the teacher was reading, just because he already spoke the language wasn't an excuse not to be a good student to the Japanese teachers. In front of him was the Perverted Trio turned duo who were simply reading a dirty magazine while Issei furiously wrote down notes, John had threatened that if Issei did not improve in his studies he would make the training worse than it had been so far. Issei did not want to take the chance and had shown remarkable improvement in all areas.

Before long the bell rang for lunch and Issei slumped to his desk in relief. He was already exhausted from the training session John had put him through since four in the morning and to put up with school on top of that and overtaxing himself with the [Boosted Gear] two days earlier and he was practically dead on his feet. John was a brutal but affective teacher as everything he had done so far had helped Issei improve far more than would have had he done it himself. At least now he could use the summoning circle instead of riding his bike to all of his summons, but he still kept getting weirdo's, the most recent freak show calling itself Mil-tan.

Issei shivered at the thought of the muscle bound, male, magical girl enthusiast. He so did not need that mental image.

"Hey Issei." The voice of Matsuda cut off his thoughts as he looked at the bald lolicon. "I found another peephole in the track teams changing room, you wanna come?" He finished

Issei would have love to look upon all of the beautiful undressing girls but he was too exhausted and wanted to sleep for the little time he had. "Sorry Matsuda, I would love to but I'm really tired so I can't. Go ahead and do it anyways." Issei told his friend, who had frozen along with anyone else who had heard. Issei looked at them confused. "Guy's?"

Motohama was the one who spoke next, while pointing a shaky finger at the boy. "W-what did you say Iss-sei?" He stuttered out as if he could not understand what he had heard.

Issei looked at them, kind of scared of their strange behavior. "I said I'm too exhausted to go peep on girls and that you guy's should go on and enjoy yourselves." He told them

"That's what we thought you said." Motohama said.

Motohama and Matsuda looked at each other…before they then threw their arms up over their head and screamed like little girls. They then ran out the classroom door screaming, "The apocalypse is nigh, let us touch your boobs."

What followed was the entire class leaving as quickly as they could, as they were scared more of this Issei than they were of the regular one for some reason.

"What was that about?" Issei asked after almost everyone had left.

"They are confused about you lack of perverted antics and refusal of taking any chance to peep on anything that is female." John said as he finished packing his stuff and walked out the door with Issei.

"Really?" Issei asked before he thought over the event and was surprised to find that John was right. Then he got angry. "Well if it wasn't for that hellish nightmare you put me through every day I wouldn't be so exhausted to the point where I actually think about missing out on peeping!" He said as he pointed an accusing finger at the **[Rook]**.

John looked at the boy with a mirthful look before he said, "Are you forgetting that it is because of that hellish nightmare I put you through every day that you no longer have to ride a bike to any of your contracts?"

When he heard that, Issei crouched in a corner while crying anime tears and said in a defeated tone, "You're a demon."

John gave a small smile at his fellow ORC member as he walked past him. "No, I'm not a demon." He said as continued down the hall before turning back. "I'm a devil."

When he left the boy behind, he came face to face with Akeno and Koneko. "Hey Akeno, Koneko." He greeted the two and walked past them as he made his way to the ORC clubroom so they could eat lunch. After a small stop at the Cafeteria the continued and arrived a few minutes later. When they came in John saw Rias sitting at her desk and almost greeted her until he saw she had a far off look in her eyes.

Rias had been acting strangely for the last week and every day that past John felt that something major was going to happen, which was why he had upped the level of training that Issei had undergone for the last two weeks. John waited for Rias to tell them and until he knew what was coming he had no idea how to prepare for it.

When John sat on the couch Akeno and Koneko took up both seats and was brought out of his thoughts when Akeno spoke up. "You know John-kun, you seem to be more easygoing than before. I mean, the teasing is a new thing…" She told him before leaning in to whisper, "but not at all unwelcome." Before leaning away like she had done nothing.

Koneko summed up Akeno's statement before the whispering. "Exploring your predator side.

John thought about what they said before he shrugged his shoulders. "I guess, must be the devil stuff that's making me loosen up. I still keep an eye on everything to make sure there's no threat around and don't think I don't notice where your hands are going Miss Sadist." He said suddenly, stopping Akeno's progress when he noticed her hand going towards his ass.

Akeno had grown bolder in the last two weeks and kept trying to grope him in the clubroom or in the hallways for some reason.

"Pervert." Koneko said simply as she took a bite out of her homemade sweet.

"Me or her?" John asked her as she had taken to calling out anyone who did anything lewd in her presence but most of the time it was either Issei or Akeno.

Before the banter could continue Rias snapped out of whatever she had been thinking about and noticed John on the couch with her **[Queen]** and other **[Rook]**. "Ah John, Akeno, Koneko when did you three come in?" She asked

John gave her an incredulous look at the question before he spoke. "About five minutes ago. We saw you at your desk and you were thinking over something so we left you alone." John told her as she looked around the room for anyone else.

When she saw the clock she got up and walked towards the door "Well I better go or I won't have time for lunch." She said before exiting the room.

When she was gone John opened the package of the bread he had brought at the cafeteria and slowly ate. He was halfway through eating the sandwich before he spoke up. "So, either of you want to explain why Rias has been off for the last few days?" He asked while taking another bite of the bread.

Akeno put her hand to her mouth after daintily taking a bit of her food. "Why John-kun, what do you mean by that? Rias is acting normally."

"Clueless." Koneko stated.

"Akeno, I appreciate you wanting to keep things on a need to know basis but please refrain from insulting my intelligence when doing so." John told Akeno blankly and gave her a small glare that had Akeno squirming in her seat.

"I'm sorry but it's not my place to tell you."

"Very well, that is all you had to say." John told her while falling back to his more laid back attitude. "So I'm guessing it's something major?" He asked about the situation that was coming up.

"I can neither confirm nor deny that statement." Akeno said as she blushed a little and took another bite of her boxed lunch as well as Koneko.

"Right I'll up Issei's training again and if you two would like I could use a couple of sparring partners as I still need to explore my powers." He told them with a smile as they continued their meal.

Akeno smiled at the invitation. "Of course I would love to."

"I accept your invitation." Koneko agreed.

"Right I'll meet you two tonight in the field after seven." Before he went back to eating he felt some energy coming through the connection from one of the flyers he handed out weeks ago.

John stood up from his seat and headed for the circle. "Hey Akeno, can you have one of your imps deliver a message to Rias and the teachers telling them I may have to miss classes for the afternoon?" He asked as he turned to the two girls.

"Of course John-kun, I'll also tell Issei to keep his studies up just so he doesn't slack." Akeno accepted his request and gave him a benevolent smile as the circle activated.

"You do that." John said as he disappeared through the circle.

#

When the energy from the circle dissipated, John saw that he was standing in a homey room in front of a beautiful woman with generous curves and dark hair and eyes who stared at him from the bed she was laying on. John noticed that she was obviously sick, either from a cold or fever he didn't know.

John smiled at the woman seeing as he didn't want to scare her with a blank face. "Hey there, I'm the devil you summoned." He greeted the woman.

The woman smiled at his friendly greeting and spoke in a raspy voice as she tried to sit up, "Thank you for appearing, I wasn't sure you would show up so early in the afternoon but I had no choice." The woman sighed as she was gently pushed back down by John.

"Don't worry about greeting me, besides you shouldn't be exerting yourself." He told the woman as she started to relax. "So what happened that made you call on a devil in the middle of the day?" He asked.

"Well my husband has been staying home from work to take care of me for the last couple of days but his boss called in and told him he had to come in today so that he could take the weekend off if I was still sick. My daughter is also at school." She explained to him as she started to look relaxed.

"So what's your name, I need it for the contract." John told her as he started to make sure she was comfortable.

"Haruka Fukuhara." She said in a calm voice. Once John was sure she was fine he found a chair and took a seat to keep her company. "I was really nervous, this was the first time I have summoned a devil, in fact my daughter was the one who suggested it." She explained to John.

John looked surprised at that and asked, "Really? Does your daughter go to Kuoh? I might know her." He asked genuinely curious about the woman.

"She does, she's also in the Kendo club." Haruka told him with a small smile. "I swear that girl and her Kendo, she's one of the best though. Her name is Katase."

"Katase-san is your daughter?" He asked her.

"You know her?" Haruka asked as she continued the conversation as she was starting to get curious about the devil who had answered her summons.

"Only in passing, she hangs out with Murayama a lot and I'm in the same class as them." John explained his association with the girl, before he thought about something for a second. "Actually I think she was the one who showed me around when I transferred into Kuoh earlier this year." He told her.

The woman took a closer look at the devil and she remembered her daughter talking about a boy she had to show around a few months back. "Oh so you're John Freemont-san?"

"That's me." He told her. John looked at the clock. "Why don't I get you something to eat? Sorry if I seem a bit clueless at times, I haven't really had a lot of experience in that kind of thing."

"It's okay; just make sure it's something light." She told him as he left the room.

#

Three hours later John reappeared in the ORC clubroom with his completed contract and set it in front of Rias as he took his seat. That had been his third contract in two weeks. A meager amount by any devil's standards but it was a good pace for a rookie devil like him. Sure he had fighting skills but that didn't help in contracts so it was a bit of a learning experience for John.

He was torn from his thoughts when Rias started speaking. "John, how did your contract go?" She asked her servant.

John turned to the busty red head. "It went well." He replied evenly. "A woman needed someone to take care of her since she was sick and her husband and daughter were out of the house." There, he saw it. As soon as he mentioned the woman's husband Rias gained that far off look that had bothered him all week.

"Well that's good, nice work." She said absently as her thoughts were preoccupied.

John thought over her reaction, about how she gained that look when he mentioned the woman was married. So Rias was worried about something to do with marriage, but why? She was eighteen sure but she was in high school, so she wouldn't have to worry about something like that for a while. However she was a member of a high ranking family and the offspring of two powerful devils if what he had read about lord Gremory and his wife Venelena Gremory was true. So that meant…

"He must be a real dick if this marriage has you this messed up." He said, deciding to put everything on the table and get some answers.

As soon as he said that Rias snapped out of her melancholy and stared at him with wide eyes. "How did you…?" She asked not even finishing the question.

John looked at her seriously for a moment before he answered. "It's kind of hard not to notice when you become distracted when someone mentions anything like marriage and dating."

Rias sighed as she took in what John said. "I guess I really haven't done that well hiding it, have I?" she said as John leaned forward ready for a serious conversation.

"Not really. I'm sure Issei or Asia haven't figured it out yet, but that is probably because Asia is so sweet and won't pry into other's personal matters and Issei has been too exhausted to notice much since I started training him." John confirmed for her.

Rias sighed once more and leaned back wearily in her chair as Akeno walked in carrying tea which she then placed in front of Rias and walked out of the room and winking at John suggestively. "You're right though, he is very unpleasant. He's shallow, arrogant and lascivious." Rias told him as she sipped from her tea before setting it down and continued. "I was recently told that my…nuptials have been forwarded. Before that happened I had until I finished with college to get out of the contract but the families felt it was too much time as by then I might have built my peerage up and challenged him to a rating game for my freedom." She explained to John who had a look of deep thought on his face.

John looked her in the eyes. "They cut off your one avenue of escape. You're too young to compete in a rating game and by moving the date up they're making it to where you have no choice." He said knowing that this was going to get bad.

Rias nodded as she gained a look of determination and stood up, walking to the window that overlooked the school grounds. "There is one possibility. It's not a very smart move and could very well see me disowned by my family but…I would rather be without my title and free than married to that pig and allow him to dictate me and my peerage." She said in a fierce voice but what she said made John look sharply at the mention of how her betrothed could dictate her peerage as well.

"What would he do to us if he was to marry you?" John asked coldly, dreading the answer he knew he was going to receive.

"He would take all the women in my peerage and turn them into his slave girls, and the men, You, Kiba and Issei would have to seek his approval for any romantic relationship you would pursue as well as pay _homage_ to him, which would most likely mean letting him bed the woman." Rias explained in an angry tone, and John realized exactly how pissed she was about this whole situation, and he felt his own wrath starting to act up.

"Well then, it looks like we're going to have a fight on our hands. I'll be sure to increase Issei's training as well as teaching him how to use the stored power he gathers." John said in a blank tone.

Rias turned to him with a look that told him to be ready for a tough fight and spoke, "John, my friend who's making the weapons you asked for said that they would be ready by tonight."

John nodded curtly. "Good."

After that Issei walked in and John started his training for the night.

#

Around midnight, lightning flashed and the sound of massive impacts sounded throughout the sports field. The only reason that the authorities were not alerted to the sounds was that there was a barrier that kept the sounds from alerting the town around them.

In the field a scuffed and bleeding John traded blows with Koneko, whose speed and strength along with her training made her a formidable opponent on her own, and her uniform was torn in places showing her blue bra and panties. John blocked the next strike to his face, before he moved his right leg in between hers and slid it to the right, moving Koneko's leg and disrupting her balance long enough that John was able to launch a palm strike that sent her flying back with an involuntary "Nya!"

That confused John long enough that he barely crossed his arms in time to block a bolt of demonic lightning that pushed him back across the field from Akeno who wore a smile that screamed ecstasy.

John stopped being pushed back a moment later and after a couple of seconds he let out a bellow, "AARRGHH!" before spreading his arms and overloading the demonic energy with his own and taking control from his stunned attacker and covering his arms with the lightning. Before he could take advantage of Akeno's surprise he was then punched in the stomach by Koneko who had managed to recover.

John doubled over, coughing up some blood before receiving another blow to the face by Koneko that threw him back to the edge of the field. Koneko charged in ready to press her advantage, she had learned in her spars with John that if you did not take advantage of any openings you had he would come back fiercer than before. When she reached John she let loose a powerful kick that was caught by him. Koneko was able to use her natural balance to keep from falling but before she could do anything she received two quick punches to the stomach and the face that launched her away from John.

When Koneko was gone, John transferred the rest of the lightning magic he had taken from Akeno's attack into his legs and sped towards Akeno, who was in a tattered shrine maiden outfit that was ripped in various places showing that she wore no underwear under the outfit, at speeds that were just below Kiba's, ready to finish her before she could finish the next spell she was preparing.

However right before he reached her he saw a large pillar of ice heading for him out of the corner of his eye. John only had a moment before the pillar smashed into him, driving him away from Akeno. As he felt his lightning enhanced legs dig into the ground, he drove all the magic into a single point in his fist before smashing it into the pillar and rendering it into frozen rubble.

Looking in the direction that the ice magic had come from, John saw a beautiful silver haired woman with matching eyes, who wore a maid outfit with a skirt that went down to her calves. Her hair was done up in a large braid that went down her back with two braids that framed her face, on top of her head was a bonnet and she wore a corset that accentuated her large bust. She had her hand raised with the glow of magic lingering, confirming to John that she had been the one to launch the spell that had kept him from finishing the spar. For some reason he couldn't explain, the woman seemed familiar for some reason.

The woman lowered her hand and moved to the side to show Rias who looked disappointed.

Rias moved forward and called out, "Akeno I need you by my side." As soon as she said that the blissful smile that Akeno had dropped into a cold look. Rias then turned to John. "John, I need you to see Koneko to her home." Rias said while gesturing to the girl who john just realized was barely able to stand, it appeared that he had hit her harder than he had meant to.

John nodded before he went towards Koneko and slipped her onto his back before moving towards Rias and the silver haired woman, keeping his eye on her the entire time as he continued forward. When he came close to Rias he stopped. "Is it time?" he asked in a calm voice.

Rias closed her eyes before she spoke. "Yes."

John nodded and moved past her, heading towards the ORC clubroom.

The silver haired woman watched as the dark haired, amber eyed youth walked away with the **[Rook]** on his back towards the Old School Building, taking notice of the predatory gait he maintained even as he carried a barely conscious girl on his back.

When they were gone, Rias took notice of Grayfia's looks and asked, "Is something the matter, Grayfia?"

The woman remained quiet still keeping her eyes on the place the boy had disappeared. "Who was that devil, Rias-sama?" Grayfia asked in a calm, careful, voice.

Rias looked at the woman curiously before she answered. "That was John Freemont, my other **[Rook]**." She told her. "Is something wrong?" She asked worried.

Grayfia shook her head as she turned back towards the Gremory heiress. "No, he just reminded me of something, that's all." She said blowing off the younger girl's concern.

#

The next day John messaged Issei to not come to the school because he had cancelled training for the day. Normally the perverted boy would have been happy for any escape from the hellish training that John made him do, but something really didn't feel right to the pervert. Especially with what happened last night.

He remembered last night when Rias had teleported into his room asking him to take her virginity. While Issei would have been ecstatic to do just that he felt…conflicted because he had been unsure of why his **[King]** would suddenly appear out of the blue with a request like that. However he had not gotten the chance when that woman, Grayfia, had appeared from a magic circle, scolding the Gremory heiress about what she had been about to do.

When she had been dressed, she had thanked him and asked if they could retrieve Akeno. Grayfia had agreed and that was the last he had heard from Rias.

When Issei arrived at the school half an hour early he saw John and Koneko walking to the school from the opposite direction. If he looked carefully he could see that Koneko was slightly limping, it looked like Koneko was sparring with John again last night, and if the bruise on John's face was any indication she had managed to get some licks in. It no longer surprised Issei that the small girl who was considered to be the mascot for the school was one of the fiercest fighters he had ever faced, not that he'd been in many, none, fights since he sparred with her for his **[Rook]** training.

He had learned that when it came to hand to hand the only person he knew who could outperform her was John.

When they arrived at the school gate he decided to speak. "So what happened to you two?" He asked the two **[Rooks]** as they headed to the school building.

John looked to Koneko who gave a small nod before looking at the pervert and saying, "Me, Koneko and Akeno were sparring last night and we all got some hits in." nonchalantly as they made their way into the building and Koneko merely nodded in confirmation. John frowned as he continued. "We were interrupted though when a woman showed up with Rias and took Akeno away somewhere."

Issei looked up when he heard that and asked, "Silver hair and in a maid uniform?"

John looked at him in surprise, something that was a rare accomplishment. "Yeah. How did you know?" John responded to the query as they separated from Koneko who had classes on the ground floor.

"Rias showed up last night and before anything could happen that woman showed up and they left to get Akeno." He said leaving out a lot of details, there was no way in hell he was going to tell John that he messed up an opportunity to have sex with a girl.

John nodded at the boy's explanation as they arrived at their class almost twenty minutes early. "I guess we'll find out what's going on at the club later." John said as they both entered the classroom both waiting for the school day to come to a close.

#

After classes John, Issei and Asia walked into the clubroom to see the woman from last night standing behind a tense Rias and Akeno. Their arrival was quickly followed Kiba and John turned to see Koneko sitting in a chair by the door.

"Hey Koneko-chan." John said to the petite girl as he moved to lean against the wall next to her, keeping the silver haired woman in his sight. As far as he could tell she was very powerful and if she wanted him or anyone else in the room dead, John figured there was little he could do to stop her. It was probably a good thing that she most likely served the Gremory.

Rias turned to John and spoke. "John-san, the weapons were finished last night, here's one." She told him as she passed a gun and a holster to him."

John easily caught the gun and removed it from the holster to examine it. It was mostly black with small splashes of red and white accents. There were two barrels, one on top of the other and near the handle there was a revolving chamber that was not connected to the handle and on the back there was a hammer to pull back.

John quickly put the gun back in the holster and slid his blazer off before putting the holster on his shoulder with practiced ease and then sliding the blazer back into place, concealing the weapon.

Rias watched as he examined the weapon and equip it before speaking. "There's no ammunition, just insert your demonic energy then pull the trigger." She explained. John simply nodded to show he heard her.

Issei spoke up after what had transpired. "Buchou, what's going on?" he asked, confused and a little uncomfortable with the woman who was in the room.

The woman, Grayfia turned to Rias. "My lady should I explain now?" she asked the red haired girl.

Rias turned to the woman and said, "No I'll-" but before she could continue, a magical circle appeared in the room that was different that the Gremory circle. It began to emit flames as a figure slowly arose from the ground that only appeared as a silhouette until emerged fully and the flames subsided.

John wasn't impressed by what he saw from Rias' betrothed. He had messy blonde hair that looked like he had just got out of bed, wearing a burgundy suit that wasn't buttoned and a white undershirt. Then there was the fact that he looked completely relaxed, like nobody in the room was a threat to him, and finally his eyes held so much arrogance in cruelty in them that even if John had still been human he would have wanted to hit him then and there.

The man looked around the room, observing the occupants. His eyes simply moved over the males without pause and lingered on the women particularly Rias and Akeno, that made John want to kill him then and there, but he restrained himself. "It's been a long time since Riser's been to the human world." He said. Opening his arms he moved towards Rias. "Rias, my dear." He said in a voice that conveyed his arrogance. Rias looked even more pissed than before by Riser's familiarity and then he put his arms around her. "Come now so Riser can show you where the ceremony is being held."

_What the Fuck?_ John thought as he listened to riser speak in third person. Why couldn't this idiot speak like a normal person?

Rias slapped his hands away with a cry of, "Don't touch me Riser!"

"Come now, Rias, there's no need to be like that." Riser said with a harder voice as he moved forward once more to put his arms around Rias once more. Issei had had enough before he moved forward.

Pointing at the blonde man he yelled, "Hey, stop disrespecting Buchou!" John slowly moved his hand towards his new gun in case this meeting went south. "And who are you anyway?" He said, as John paid close attention for the answer.

Riser turned to Rias with an arrogant smirk. "You didn't tell them?" He asked her.

Rias turned her nose up at the man, simply saying, "There was no need to." With disdain for the man.

Grayfia moved in between the two groups in order to stop any possible violence. "May I introduce Riser Phenex of the Phenex family, the third son of Lord and Lady Phenex, and fiancée of Rias Gremory." She told them all

_Well shit, _was what John thought when he heard the man's name. Unlike Issei, John had read up on the other families from the seventy-two pillar, over half of which were either extinct or were no longer counted among the pillars. He had found entries about the Phenex, how they were named after the legendary bird due to sharing similar powers, their ability to heal from any mortal wound and their tears which could heal even the most grievous of wounds. If this turned into a fight then they were at a severe disadvantage because a Phenex was possibly the worst matchup for a user of the Power of Destruction.

Issei however was not as silent as John in his reaction. "What!? This overcooked chicken is marrying Buchou?" John had to give it to Issei, he knew how to give out an insult.

Riser's smirk grew even cockier as he looked to Issei. "What a disrespectful servant." He said as he unleashed some of his power causing fire to appear all around him. "Riser should teach you to respect your betters."

Before anyone could say anything else Grayfia moved forward, saying, "We should all take seats and let the discussions commence." With the kind of power and authority that came with being the most powerful person in the room, which she undoubtedly was, and unleashed some of her restrained power, overriding Riser's and lowering the temperature in the room by several degrees. Looking closely John could see frost forming all over the room. This was not a request but an order.

Never once did Riser lose his smirk as he acknowledged the maid's order. "Very well. Even Riser would not dare to defy the Ultimate Queen." He said, speaking the woman's title, which was probably well deserved.

John leaned back onto the wall, keeping his eyes trained on the Phenex in case things went badly, which with their track record was probably going to happen anyway. Akeno left the room to make some tea and the other members of the peerage lined up to the side of the room, Rias meanwhile had to sit on the couch while Riser slid right next to her and placed his arm over her shoulder.

John could tell that Rias was repulsed by the man. Really, less than two minutes in Riser's presence and John was using every ounce of his self control not to wipe the smug smirk off the Phenex's face, but he knew that any action on his part could have him, and by extension Rias, in trouble for attacking a member of one of the seventy-two pillars. Issei looked like he wanted to take a shot at the guy with all eighteen boosts from the [Boosted Gear].

The silence was tense as they waited as everyone remained quiet; keeping a very close eye on the unwanted visitor who shamelessly eyed all the women in the room with unconcealed lust and cruelty, even Grayfia who he was obviously wary of. It seemed like this guy was a domination addict, the more powerful and independent the woman, the more appealing the woman was as a target to be brought down.

John realized right then that Rias had been understating just how bad Riser was. This guy was just short of being a sociopath when it came to women. To him, all women were targets to become slaves to him, no matter how powerful they were or how much they outclassed him, like Grayfia. And someone as independent as Rias was merely a fun game for him.

Realising all this, John was now more determined than before to make sure Rias did not get married to this asshole. It really surprised him that her parents would even allow this marriage to happen even if it was for more pure blooded devils to be born.

Just then Akeno brought in some tea from the kitchen, earning the attention from the arrogant Phenex. The look that he sent Akeno's way had John wanting to use his new gun to see if the Phenex could recover from castration via heavy duty spellfire, but managed to hold himself back.

"Ah, the Tea that Rias' queen makes is quite delicious." He said as he took a sip of the streaming liquid.

Akeno bowed her head cordially while she held the tray across her chest. "Why thank you for the compliment." She said.

John had known Akeno for almost a month and knew her cues pretty well at this point. This was not the relaxed and friendly formality that Akeno showed around Rias nor was it the fun somewhat sadistic teasing attitude that she often displayed when they were alone. This was Akeno when she was tense, when she was in the presence of someone who she well and truly despised; In other words, Akeno was pissed! It was terrifying, and kinda hot, but mostly terrifying.

Her mood was further confirmed by the slight indentions she left in the metal.

As Riser continued to sip the tea, his free arm never left Rias' shoulders and his hand played idly with her hair. John could see that Rias' temper was starting to boil and it wouldn't be long before she blew a gasket.

John knew the exact moment Rias was about to explode when Riser's hand suddenly went lower towards her breasts as if to grasp them in clear view of her servants. From what John knew of dominators, this was an obvious show of superiority to the audience by showing that if he could get away with doing something as bold as groping a group's leader in front of the group, they could do nothing against them. John's fingers twitched towards his gun to remove the fingers, his devil impulses were really starting to act up, damn the wrath and pride sins.

It was completely unnecessary as Rias moved to remove his arm and stood up, as the Americans say, spitting mad. "ENOUGH!" Rias yelled her cheeks flushed with anger and indignation. "I have told you before Riser I will not marry you." She told him firmly as all her servants, John included, tensed ready for a fight.

Riser merely looked at her with the condescending look of an adult humoring a child throwing a tantrum. "But isn't your family very worried about this." Riser said as he continued to lounge on the couch as if he were not surrounded on all sides by people who would do their damnedest to end his life, immortality be damned.

Rias grew angrier at the mention of their family. "They're all in such a rush." She said in a tone that conveyed just how mad she was. "As the heir I should be allowed to choose my own husband. Not to mention that I was promised freedom until I graduated university in the human world." She finished bitterly. John understood, broken…promis…es…

_I sat in the cell they put me in before they put me through more testing. I waited for the woman, the woman who always stopped to talk to me. But she didn't come. She promised she would always come to see me when they put me through these tests. So where is she?_

_She told me she would take me away, that I would be able to see the sky, I had never seen the sky. But she didn't come. The tests happened again and she didn't show up then either. Had she gone away without me, had I been left behind to rot away in this small cell, in this place where the horrors never ceased, where I was forced to end lives and endure tortures that would leave even the most hardened adults as quivering shells of what they used to be? Had I been lied to?_

_Suddenly the door opened and the men who came through grabbed and restrained me as best they could._

_After that I was dragged through the door and led into the open area. This was the place where every test was started, where they pitted me against some of the most dangerous individuals in the world, and for what? To see whether I was good enough to survive another month, to see whether I met their standards? Only this time there were many people both scientist and people in suits who were in the area._

_Three men brought in someone with a burlap bag over her, it was definitely a she, head. When they reached my position they roughly pushed her to the ground in front of me as a dark haired woman with blue eyes and generous curves walked in with the blonde haired green eyed woman who usually presided over the tests they had for me. The click-clack of the blonde's heels on the concrete was annoying but I kept quiet._

_The dark haired woman walked over to and behind me where she took out the note pad in order to jot down notes on my performance. The blonde then commanded my attention as she started to speak._

"_Staff and collaborators," She started, addressing the people around the room. "I thank you for your presence for the demonstration of one of our most successful subjects." She turned to each one as she said that pausing for a moment on the dark haired woman behind me who I could tell was keeping her eyes on me without wavering by looking at the reflection in one of the male scientist's badges. "Now for those of you who are new to this project, the term "subject" refers to the specimens who have called this place, the Pit, home since the time of their birth. It is our goal in this place to spur on the next evolution of Biological Weapons, only instead of viruses or gases we have decided the next phase of BLW's needed a touch of the most dangerous element known to us. The Human Element!" She finished grandiosely._

_At her proclamation many turned towards me with skepticism in their eyes. One person that caught my eye was a man with long red hair that kept his face perfectly neutral. The man could be summed up as a pretty boy but there was definitely steel in his frame, like many of the men that I had brought low in my time in this hellhole. Behind him stood a silver haired woman with her hair done in a single braid behind her back and silver eyes that looked at me with…what was that emotion? It wasn't anger or disgust but something sad._

_Before I could continue my observation the blonde woman decided to continue her speech. "As you are no doubt realizing now, the boy who is currently being watched by his tester and the second in command of this little project, Amanda Corsair, is the Subject we have all come to view. We have dubbed him Subject 7. Despite the fact that he is only eight years old, almost nine, he is strong, fast and smart enough to track and subdue Special Forces and agents from the various militaries and intelligence agencies across the world."_

_One of the men in the back of the group questioned her claim. "And how do _we _know if what you say is true?" The Blonde woman merely smirked and raised her hand to snap her fingers and a glow started behind me, no doubt showing the multiple kills that I had done to the crowd. The man who had spoken merely backed away and looked at me in fear._

_The woman saw the man's reaction and smirked not so subtly licking her lips. "Now that that is out of the way I will move on. Behind me you will see a young woman who is bound and blinded." The blonde said gesturing to the girl being restrained. "This is another subject we call Subject 3. She unlike 7 is more inclined towards more mental abilities. She is a master strategist at the age of nineteen and has been able to obtain victory in what many would call unwinnable situations. However we must call this one what she is…" The woman removed the girls sack letting her look around before slapping her with enough force to knock her to the ground. Subject 3 was roughly pulled up revealing a dark haired blue eyed woman, the one who taught me to play chess the one who made the promise to me to get out. "…A failure. For the last three years Subject 3 has been silently gaining resources with Subjects 1 and 4 in order to escape." The people looked around nervously most likely remembering the things I had done on the screen._

"_However," The woman continued with a cruel smile. "she will serve her final purpose as part of the demonstration for Subject 7." The woman turned towards me and made a gesture that I recognized as meaning 'move forward' and did so without hesitation. As I reached her she pulled out the glock that I had used so many times to end the lives of men over three times my age. I took it and she simply said, "Make me proud." Before standing back with a smile to watch the show._

_I continued to move forward towards the only person who had ever shown kindness with a tool with no other purpose than death. She looked into my eyes begging me not to do what the blonde woman wanted me to. But not doing what she wanted meant pain._

"_**These worms are nothing to one such as you!"**__ said something deep within me, something dark. __**"You do not want to kill this one. But them…"**__ the men who stood by her keeping her restrained, they were the ones who came into many of the subjects cells at night and beat them, tortured them, monsters in human flesh who reveled in the suffering of those who could not defend themselves. They should be the ones to die. __**"… And what is stopping you?"**__ The voice said._

…_Why shouldn't he kill them? They had done enough to warrant it._

"_Subject 7! Raise your pistol." The blonde said. And I raised it pointing at the girls head._

"_Kill them." A small voice said._

"_Fire!" The blonde ordered._

"_**KILL THEM!"**__ The voice roared and I followed what it said._

Bang!

_The sound reverberated through the room as a body fell to the ground._

_Only it wasn't the body of Subject 3 but the body of one of her restrainers. Everyone stared in shock at the body of the man before looking towards me holding the still smoking gun in my hand. My eyes glowed yellow as I turned the gun towards the next man and shot him in the head._

_The next second all the guards sprung into action towards me. The first to reach me received a strong kick to the knee which knocked him to the ground before he too received a bullet to the head. I jumped And lashed out with a spinning kick that snapped another guards neck before I landed and shot the gun two more times killing another guard._

_I then turned towards the blonde and raised my gun and saw the shock on her face, but before I could fire again I was tackled and all I knew next was pain._

_Before I blacked out I noticed that Subject 3 was gone…_

#

He was snapped out of the admittedly longest flashback that John had ever experienced by a sudden flare of heat which had him raising his gun from pure reflex as Riser finished what he was saying. "…Riser will drag you back to the Underworld even if I have to burn all of your servants to ashes!" He said while he was wreathed in flame and everything around him started to catch fire. What the hell had happened while John was experiencing that flashback that made Riser this pissed? Looking around John saw that Rias was standing opposite from Riser, proud and clearly very angry. What the hell had he missed?

That speculation was cut off when Grayfia decided to calm things down…by exerting her absolute dominance over everyone in the room by unleashing a wave of cold that put the sudden chill from earlier to shame. This was beyond that, like the room had been doused in liquid nitrogen.

She kept the pressure on until everyone had backed down, Surprisingly Issei was the last to back down. And from his stance John could tell that he was particularly angry by something Riser said and had most likely mouthed off causing Riser to blow a fuse.

Grayfia then started speaking. "Seeing as My lady has refused to accept the engagement my lord saw fit to set up an alternative to settle this disagreement. You will both enter into an unofficial rating game I order to settle the matter of the engagement. Rias wins, she is free from obligation to accept and may reject the engagement with no consequences. Riser wins, Rias will marry Riser Phenex."

Riser looked around the room counting all of the members of Rias' peerage who were present. "Hey Rias are these all your servants?" Riser asked, John was not liking that look in the blonde assholes eyes.

Rias looked at him for a moment before answering. "Yes Riser, these are all my servants." Not really the truth but John really didn't care all that much if she excluded the only peerage member he had yet to meet.

Riser then started to laugh. "Oh this is great; it really won't be much of a fight for Riser. You only have five servants whereas Riser…" He snapped his finger as his families crest imposed itself once more over the Gremory crest. John growled, his Wrath getting past his control as he had read in a book given to him by Rias over devil culture that imposing another families crest over another was considered incredibly disrespectful and had led to more that a few death battles between more traditional families. That this ass thought himself so superior that he could show this amount of disrespect and get away with it

Fifteen figures rose from the crest revealing several girls between thirteen and eighteen, all with proud looks on their face except for one who wore a leather jacket that showed some of her ample cleavage and a fragment of a mask over her right eye and three red streaks through her brown hair, she was the only one who looked like she was on the lookout for trouble. Her eyes latched onto John who had put his gun a way but kept it in easy reach in case Riser threw another tantrum.

Riser, meanwhile continued what he was saying. "…Have a full peerage." He finished before looking the Gremory peerage once more. "Judging from the appearace of this ragtag group only your queen would be capable of fighting my servants." He finished arrogantly as his servants laughed in the background.

John almost lost it then. John was normally calm and not many people would have noticed but he was absolutely ready to knock Riser down a few hundred pegs. Luckily he had a poker face that hid most of it. But on the inside: _'Oh the hell that arrogant asshole did not just…'_. And just like that Riser had hit John's pride and was testing his control.

Meanwhile Issei was crying and Riser took notice of the boy. "Uh, Rias Why is your pawn crying?" He asked.

John looked over and almost face palmed at the sight of a blubbering Issei who was staring at the other peerage full of beautiful women. John would have felt inclined to somewhat comfort the guy but he really didn't feel like it.

Rias answered reluctantly. "His dream is to have a harem and seeing your peerage must have set him off." Rias said a bit annoyed.

Some of the girls in Riser's peerage visibly recoiled at the statement of the pervert's dream. Two young looking girls rushed over to Riser's side and hid in some effigy of a young girl hiding behind their older brother's legs from something they found scary. "Lord Riser, this kid is disgusting." Issei looked like he literally just broke apart.

Riser then gained a cruel smile as he moved over to what John guessed was his **[Queen] **before speaking directly to Issei. "Humph, you will never have this." Riser said before he then started to make out with his [**Queen**].

Issei watched this scene for a few seconds as Riser moved onto fondling his **[Queen's]** breasts. Issei finally snapped at Riser's display while John looked apathetically and Asia tried to look anywhere else as she was still embarrassed by anything that was considered intimate. Issei stepped forward and jutted a finger out towards Riser. "You're a terrible match for Buchou!" He said catching Riser's attention from his heavy petting.

"Oh?" Riser said.

Issei continued his (somewhat reasonable, but no doubt perversion inspired) rant. "I bet that even after you married her, you would still go messing around with other girl."

Risert merely looked at the boy contemptuously. "I am their master, their patron. So what is wrong if I were to have them in any way I desired." Riser said in reply to Issei's accusation.

John definitely had the guy pegged, Riser was a definite sociopath.

Issei looked like he finally had enough and summoned his **[Boosted** **Gear]**. "I'll take you down right now you damn fried chicken playboy.

With that proclamation the [Sacred Gear] said "**[BOOST]**" and Issei charged forward.

Riser snapped his finger at the girl in the martial arts uniform carrying a bo staff. "Mira." He said not bothering to elaborate what he wanted as it was clear. The girl moved forward and thrust her staff at Issei. Normally anyone might have been caught off guard by Mira's attack, but Issei had gone through two weeks straight of John Freemont tutoring him and using Koneko to beat the tar out of him to help him get past his reluctance to hit cute girls. Needless to say the method worked as Issei dodged the girls thrust and slapped it away with his red and gold gauntlet and blocked her next attack in which she spun around in order to try and strike him.

John saw the brown haired biker girl move forward to attack so he responded by moving forward and catching her fist before he kneed her in the stomach and floored her. John slammed his foot on her back before he pulled his gun out and aimed it at the [Queen] of Riser's peerage.

They all stayed still for a second before John spoke. "Issei, go back to your spot we'll talk about this later." He told Issei roughly while he glared at the Phenex.

Issei began to sweat as he took in that tone. He was going to die he knew it. Thoughts of his impending doom followed him back to his spot against the wall.

Riser looked at John for a moment as John moved back to Rias' side of the room. Riser smirked at Rias as he took his eyes off the [Rook]. "While mildly impressive, Mira is one of Riser's [Pawns] and the newest member of Riser's peerage. This display is not enough to impress Riser that much." He said while looking over the rest of Rias' peerage. "Riser accepts the Rating game and its conditions and as a sign of good will Riser will give you ten days to prepare for our [Rating Game]."

Rias looked insulted at the offer, as she should as the fact that Riser gave them a handicap was a clear declaration of how little of a threat he viewed them as. "You're giving us a handicap?" Rias said angrily.

Riser merely smirked arrogantly. "Will you not take it?"

Rias covered her indignity at the handicap with calm acceptance. "No just making sure."

"Well Riser must be going, I will see you at the [Rating Game] and at our ceremony after that." Riser said as he and his peerage moved towards his family crest including the girl that John had floored who looked mostly unharmed.

Grayfia moved between the two groups before speaking. "I will alert Lord Gremory to your acceptance of the [Rating Game] and the event will be scheduled for ten days from now." And with that Riser and his peerage were gone leaving the Gremory peerage to plan for the chance to win their master's freedom.

While they were all distracted John looked right at Grayfia while her back was turned. The flashback told him why she looked familiar. Now he had a lead about the group that had been looking for him.

But that could wait as he needed to help his master get free from that arrogant asshole.

**xxChapter Endxx**

**A/N Hey guy's I know it has been awhile. Five words: College, Work And NO SLEEP! Good news I am One semester away from Graduating college. WHOO HOO First Generation college GRADUATE. You have no idea how happy I am about that. And I will graduate with no debts and hopefully a shot at immediate employment when I graduate. But Man I wish I had a better explanation for why it took so long but I can't really say anything Hope you enjoyed the chapter and here's a bit of a sneak preview of something that will happen in the future. The part where John was taking care of Katase's sick mother has no impact on the plot.**

John walked down the tunnel with his gun ready. He had found the entrance to the pit and he was taking no chances. Who knew what _they_ had left behind for anybody who came looking for answers?

As he continued to walk he heard something move and spun around aiming for where he heard the sound come from, only to see a large mouse. I t looked at him for a second before it squeaked and ran off in the other direction. Lowering his gun John turned around to keep going.

John then came face to face with the snarling face of an eyeless monster before it then pounced on him forcing him against the wall.

**End. Ho[e to see you next update.**


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